Regnier de Graaf

Regnier de Graaf (1641 to 1673), also written Reinier de Graaf, was a Dutch physician, physiologist and anatomist from Schoonhoven who made key discoveries in reproductive biology. He studied at Leuven, Utrecht and Leiden alongside Jan Swammerdam and Frederik Ruysch, took his degree at Angers and practised in Delft. He designed a syringe for injecting dye into the reproductive organs, described the testicular tubules and the corpora lutea, and gave his name to the Graafian follicles of the ovary, although he himself pointed out that he was not the first to describe them. A priority dispute with Swammerdam over the role of the ovary clouded his last years, and he died in Delft at the age of thirty two.