Jean Pecquet

Jean Pecquet was a French scientist. He studied the expansion of air, wrote on psychology, and is also known for investigating the thoracic duct. Furthermore, he studied the nature of vision.

Life

Jean Pecquet studied medicine at Montpellier, where he investigated the important discovery of the course of the lacteal vessels, including the receptaculum chyli and the termination of the principal lacteal vessel, the thoracic duct, into the left subclavian vein. He dissected the eye and measured its dimensions. Contrary to Edme Mariotte, he maintained that the retina, not the choroid, was the principal organ of vision.

Selected written works

Experimenta Nova Anatomica
De Circulatione Sanguinis et Chyli Motu
De Thoracicis Lacteis
''Nouvelle découverte touchant la veüe''
Terms
Pecquet, cistern of, reservoir of — The receptaculum chyli.