Franciscus Sylvius (15 March 1614 – 19 November 1672), born Franz de le Boë, was a

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

and

scientist A scientist is a person who conducts scientific research to advance knowledge in an area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engaged in the philosoph ...

(

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe t ...

, physiologist and

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 it ...

) who was an early champion of Descartes', Van Helmont's and

William Harvey William Harvey (1 April 1578 – 3 June 1657) was an English physician who made influential contributions in anatomy and physiology. He was the first known physician to describe completely, and in detail, the systemic circulation and propert ...

's work and theories. He was one of the earliest defenders of the theory of circulation of the blood in the Netherlands, and commonly falsely cited as the inventor of gin – others pinpoint the origin of gin to Italy.

Life

Sylvius, a Latinization of "de le Boë" translated as "of the woods", was born in Hanau to an affluent family originally from Cambrai, but worked and died in the Netherlands. He studied medicine at the

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

Academy of Sedan, and from 1632 to 1634 at Leiden University under Adolph Vorstius and Otto Heurnius. In 1634 he held a dissertation titled ''Positiones variae medicae'' (''Various Medical Positions'') under the direction of Vorstius, in which he defended the proposition that there should be a

pulmonary circulation The pulmonary circulation is a division of the circulatory system in all vertebrates. The circuit begins with deoxygenated blood returned from the body to the right atrium of the heart where it is pumped out from the right ventricle to the lungs ...

. After that Sylvius made a study tour to

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 po ...

and

Wittenberg Wittenberg ( , ; Low Saxon: ''Wittenbarg''; meaning ''White Mountain''; officially Lutherstadt Wittenberg (''Luther City Wittenberg'')), is the fourth largest town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Wittenberg is situated on the River Elbe, north o ...

. On 16 March 1637 he defended a

doctoral thesis A thesis ( : theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: ...

titled ''De animali motu ejusque laesionibus'' (''On Animal Movement and its Disorders'') at the

University of Basel The University of Basel (Latin: ''Universitas Basiliensis'', German: ''Universität Basel'') is a university in Basel, Switzerland. Founded on 4 April 1460, it is Switzerland's oldest university and among the world's oldest surviving universit ...

under the direction of Emmanuel Stupanus. After practicing medicine in his hometown Hanau he returned to Leiden in 1639 to lecture. In this period he became famous for his demonstrations on circulation. From 1641 on he had a lucrative medical practice in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

. While in Amsterdam he met Glauber, who introduced him to chemistry. In 1658 he was appointed the professor of medicine at Leiden University and was paid 1800 guilders which was twice the usual salary. He was the university's Vice-Chancellor in 1669–70.

Work

In 1669 Sylvius founded the first academic chemical laboratory. For this reason, the building in which the Institute of Biology of Leiden University is housed has the name ''Sylvius Laboratory''. His most famous students were

Jan Swammerdam Jan Swammerdam (February 12, 1637 – February 17, 1680) was a Dutch biologist and microscopist. His work on insects demonstrated that the various phases during the life of an insect— egg, larva, pupa, and adult—are different forms of the ...

Reinier de Graaf Regnier de Graaf (English spelling), original Dutch spelling Reinier de Graaf, or Latinized Reijnerus de Graeff (30 July 164117 August 1673) was a Dutch physician, physiologist and anatomist who made key discoveries in reproductive biology. He s ...

Niels Stensen Niels Steensen ( da, Niels Steensen; Latinized to ''Nicolaus Steno'' or ''Nicolaus Stenonius''; 1 January 1638 – 25 November 1686Burchard de Volder. He founded the Iatrochemical School of Medicine, according to which all life and disease processes are based on chemical actions. That school of thought attempted to understand medicine in terms of universal rules of physics and chemistry. Sylvius also introduced the concept of chemical affinity as a way to understand the way the human body uses salts and contributed greatly to the understanding of digestion and of bodily fluids. The most important work he published was ''Praxeos medicae idea nova'' (''New Idea in Medical Practice'', 1671). Specifically, he explained that digestion is a result of the chemical reactions of acids and bases coming from pancreatic, stomach, and saliva secretions.

He researched the structure of the

brain A brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It is located in the head, usually close to the sensory organs for senses such as vision. It is the most complex organ in a ve ...

and was credited as the discoverer of the cleft in the brain known as

Sylvian fissure In neuroanatomy, the lateral sulcus (also called Sylvian fissure, after Franciscus Sylvius, or lateral fissure) is one of the most prominent features of the human brain. The lateral sulcus is a deep fissure in each hemisphere that separates th ...

by Caspar Bartholin in his 1641 book ''Casp. Bartolini Institutiones Anatomicae'' In this book, it is noted that in the preface that "We can all measure the nobility of Sylvius’s brain and talent by the marvelous, new structure of the brain". And also, "In the new images of the brain, the engraver followed the design and scalpel of the most thorough Franciscus Sylvius, to whom we owe, in this part, everything that the brain has the most, or the most wonderful of". However Caspar Bartholin died in 1629 and Franciscus Sylvius only started medicine in 1632 and it has been argued that the words in this word describing the Sylvian fissure are either by his son

Thomas Bartholin Thomas Bartholin (; Latinized as ''Thomas Bartholinus''; 20 October 1616 – 4 December 1680) was a Danish physician, mathematician, and theologian. He is best known for his work in the discovery of the lymphatic system in humans and for hi ...

or indeed Franciscus Sylvius. In 1663 in his ''Disputationem Medicarum'', Franciscus Sylvius under his own name described the lateral fissure: "Particularly noticeable is the deep fissure or hiatus which begins at the roots of the eyes (''oculorum radices'') ..it runs posteriorly above the temples as far as the roots of the brain stem (''medulla radices''). ..It divides the cerebrum into an upper, larger part and a lower, smaller part". The

and the Sylvian aqueduct are named after him. The

mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid chemical compound with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. (2 ...

sylvite was also named for Sylvius. His book ''Opera Medica'', published posthumously in 1679, recognizes scrofula and phthisis as forms of

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, i ...

. He owned a collection of 190 paintings, nine by Frans van Mieris and eleven by

Gerard Dou Gerrit Dou (7 April 1613 – 9 February 1675), also known as Gerard Douw or Dow, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, whose small, highly polished paintings are typical of the Leiden fijnschilders. He specialised in genre scenes and is noted for his ' ...

, in the 17th century highly valued and pricey painters.Eric J. Sluijter, Marlies Enklaar, Paul Nieuwenhuizen (1988), ''Leidse fijnschilders: van Gerrit Dou tot Frans Mieris de Jonge, 1630-1760''.

References

External links

Sylvian fissure

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sylvius, Franciscus 1614 births 1672 deaths People from Hanau 17th-century Dutch physicians 17th-century German physicians 17th-century Protestants Dutch anatomists 17th-century Dutch anatomists Dutch Calvinist and Reformed Christians German anatomists Leiden University alumni University of Basel alumni Leiden University faculty 17th-century Dutch scientists 17th-century Dutch writers 17th-century German writers 17th-century German male writers