Thomas Wharton (medic)

Thomas Wharton, around 1650

Thomas Wharton (born August 31, 1614 in Winston-on-Tees , † November 15, 1673 in London ) was an English doctor and anatomist . In 1656 he published a book about the glands of the body and was the first to prove that the ductus pancreaticus accessorius was found. Also known as are named after him Wharton's duct called submandibular duct and the Wharton's jelly .

Life

Thomas Wharton was in 1614 in Winston-on-Tees in County Durham and studied from 1638 at Pembroke College of University of Cambridge , at the Trinity College of the University of Oxford and at the University of London . In Oxford, where he studied again from 1646, he obtained his doctorate in 1647 .

After his studies he worked as a doctor in London , including from 1659 until his death at St Thomas' Hospital . In 1650 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians , and four years later he held the Goulstonian Lectures there . During the Great Plague of London in 1665/1666 he was one of the few doctors who remained in the city. In addition to his medical practice, he taught at Gresham College .

Thomas Wharton was married and had three sons. He died in London in 1673.

Act

In 1656 Thomas Wharton wrote the book Adenographia sive glandularum totius corporis descriptio ("Adenography or description of the glands of the entire body") in which he first pointed out that the duct of the pancreas of fish and poultry is double and sometimes merges into one duct. He was the first to demonstrate the accessorius pancreatic duct , but this was only researched more precisely by Giovanni Domenico Santorini .

Bear his name also known as Wharton's duct called submandibular duct , the duct of the submandibular gland , as well as Wharton's jelly called intercellular substance of gelatinous connective tissue of the umbilical cord .

literature

• Heinz-Peter Schmiedebach: Wharton, Thomas. In: Werner E. Gerabek, Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil, Wolfgang Wegner: Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2005, ISBN 978-3-110-15714-7 , p. 1483.
• Wharton, Thomas 1614-1673. In: Victor Cornelius Medvei: The History of Clinical Endocrinology: A Comprehensive Account of Endocrinology from Earliest Times to the Present Day. The Parthenon Publishing Group, Carnforth and Pearl River 1993, ISBN 1-85-070427-9 , p. 482.
• John Malone Howard, Walter Hess: History of the Pancreas: Mysteries of a Hidden Organ. Springer, New York 2002, ISBN 978-0-306-46742-4 , p. 32.

Web links

• Whonamedit? A Dictionary of Medical Eponyms: Thomas Wharton