Littre

Littre Alexis (Alexis Littre, 1658–1725), the famous French surgeon and anatomist. He studied medicine in Montpellier and then in Paris, where he served as a private lecturer in anatomy for about 15 years. In 1699, he was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences in Paris. He devoted himself to anatomical studies with such zeal that, for example, in the single year of 1684, he performed more than 200 dissections at the Salpetriere. In surgery, he is known for the hernia named after him and described by him of the intestinal diverticulum. Littre's numerous works are mostly published in the 'Memoires de l'Academie royale des sciences' (from 1700). The most important of them are: 'Observation sur une nouvelle espece de hernie' (1700); 'Description de l'uretre de l'homme' (1700); 'Observations sur les ovaires et les trompes d'une femme et sur un foetus trouve dans l'un de ses ovaires' (1701); 'Observation d'un foetus humain trouve dans la trompe gauche de la matrice' (1711), and 'Observations sur la gonorrhee' (1711). In the latter work, the glands named after Littre are described (see Littre glands).