Adam Christian Thebesius (January 12, 1686 – November 10, 1732) was a German

anatomist Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having its ...

who was a native of Sandenwalde,

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...

. He studied medicine in

Jena Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a popu ...

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

and

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...

, receiving his doctorate from the

University of Leiden Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, as a reward to the city of Le ...

in 1708. During the following year, he opened a medical practice in Hirschberg, and beginning in 1715 he served as ( municipal physician) in Hirschberg, as well as a medical consultant to the nearby Warmbrunn spa. Thebesius is known for his studies of

coronary Coronary () may, as shorthand in English, be used to mean: * Coronary circulation, the system of arteries and veins in mammals ** Coronary artery disease **Coronary occlusion ** A myocardial infarction, a heart attack As adjective * Referring to ...

circulation. In his 1708 graduate thesis, (from

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

: ''On the Circulation of the Blood in the Heart''), he described the tiny cardiac

venous Veins are blood vessels in humans and most other animals that carry blood towards the heart. Most veins carry deoxygenated blood from the tissues back to the heart; exceptions are the pulmonary and umbilical veins, both of which carry oxygenated ...

tributaries that drain directly into the

cardiac The heart is a muscular organ in most animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels of the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrients to the body, while carrying metabolic waste such as carbon dioxide to t ...

chambers. These veins are now known as "Thebesian veins", or , and the drainage pathway is referred to as the "Thebesian system". Two other anatomical structures that contain his name are: * Thebesian foramina: Also known as or "Vieussens' foramina" after Raymond Vieussens (1635–1715). These structures are orifices of the Thebesian veins. * Thebesian valve: The

valve of the coronary sinus In the anatomy of the heart, the valve of the coronary sinus (also called the Thebesian valve, after Adam Christian Thebesius) is a semicircular fold of the lining membrane of the right Atrium (heart), atrium, at the orifice of the coronary sinus ...

References

* * * * * ''Biographisches Lexikon der hervorragenden Ärzte aller Zeiten und Völker'', August Hirsch, W. Haberling, F. Hübotter and H. Vierordt, eds, Volume 5, second edition, Berlin 1934, p. 543.

External links

Biography of Adam Christian Thebesius

@

Who Named It ''Whonamedit?'' is an online English-language dictionary of medical eponyms and the people associated with their identification. Though it is a dictionary, many eponyms and persons are presented in extensive articles with comprehensive bibliograph ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thebesius, Adam Christian German anatomists 1686 births 1732 deaths People from Austrian Silesia Leiden University alumni