Pecquet John (1622-1674)

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)

Discovery of Thoracic Duct

In 1647 Jean Pecquet (1622-1674) discovered the thoracic duct while working on animal dissection. He was an anatomist of Paris at that time.

Pecquet was born in Dieppe, France and studied medicine in Paris and Montpelier. Pecquet reported in his findings in ‘Experiment nova anatomica’ in 1651.

The year after that Johannes Van Horne, a Dutch Professor who joined the medical faculty at Leiden published an account of the same organ. He himself independently discovered the thoracic duct and first observed it in the human body.

The duct is connected to the lymph system and connects the vessels and organs that transmit nutrients and oxygen to the tissues of the body and carries away waste matter from the tissue.

It was later determined that the thoracic system carries lymph, which is the waste fluid, and chyle, the fluid containing nutrients from the digestion of food, to and from the intestinal system into the cardiovascular system.

Although Eustachius had given some hints of the existence of a thoracic duct, yet Pecquet deserves the credit of having traced the whole course of the lacteal system to its termination on the subclavian veins.
Discovery of Thoracic Duct