Pecquet John, a celebrated anatomist, was born at Dieppe in 1622.
He received a medical education at Montpellier, from which university he obtained the degree of MD.
He afterwards went to Pairs, where he became associated with Mentel and other anatomist in their scientific pursuits.
In 1647 he discovered the thoracic duct while working on animal dissection. He was an anatomist of Paris at that time.
Pecquet reported in his findings in ‘Experiment nova anatomica’ in 1651.
Pecquet actually rediscovered the thoracic duct traced to the lacteal vessels, and demonstrated the passage of the cycle through the duct onto the subelavian vein.
This discovery soon gave his name a celebrity throughout Europe and added important confirmation of the Harveian account of the circulation.
Pecquet also wrote some papers on anatomical subjects, in the Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences, in which society he was admitted a member in 1666 and in the Journal des Savans.
Pecquet John (1622-1674)
