Thomas Bartholin

Thomas Bartholin (1616 to 1680) was a Danish physician, mathematician and theologian who worked chiefly on anatomy. He came from a family that produced twelve professors at the University of Copenhagen, and he revised and enlarged his father's anatomy textbook so that it carried William Harvey's account of the circulation of the blood. In December 1652 he published the first full description of the human lymphatic system, which led to a long priority dispute with the Swedish anatomist Olof Rudbeck. He also wrote the first known scientific mention of refrigeration anaesthesia, and his most famous pupil was Niels Stensen, known as Steno. After a fire at his estate Hagestedgard in 1670 destroyed his library, King Christian V appointed him royal physician.