Antoine Ferrein

Antoine Ferrein was a French anatomist who lived from 1693 to 1769. He was a native of Frespech, a commune in the Villeneuve-sur-Lot area of south-western France, and he became a professor at the Collège Royal in Paris. In 1742 he was elected a member of the Académie des sciences. He is chiefly remembered for his work on the physiology of the voice. He is credited with coining the term cordes vocales, the French for vocal cords, and he proposed that the ligaments of the larynx work like the strings of a violin. He also connected the size of the glottis with how loud a person's voice is. Several anatomical eponyms still bear his name, including Ferrein's canal, Ferrein's foramen, Ferrein's ligament, Ferrein's pyramid and Ferrein's vasa aberrantia.