Johann Heinrich Meibom ( la, Iohannes Henricus Meibomius; 29 June 1638, in Lübeck – 26 March 1700, in

Helmstedt Helmstedt (; Eastphalian: ''Helmstidde'') is a town on the eastern edge of the German state of Lower Saxony. It is the capital of the District of Helmstedt. The historic university and Hanseatic city conserves an important monumental heritage of ...

) was a German physician and scholar.

Life

Heinrich Meibom was the son of physician Johann Heinrich Meibom (1590-1655), who was the author of De Usu Flagrorum. He studied medicine at

Groningen Groningen (; gos, Grunn or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen province in the Netherlands. The ''capital of the north'', Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of the northern part of t ...

and Leyden and afterwards traveled to Italy, France and England for scientific studies. He received his doctorate in 1663 in Angers (France) and in 1664 accepted a professorship in medicine at the University of Helmstedt. In 1678 he also became professor for history and poetry. He held these positions until his death in 1700. His son, , (1678-1740) was professor for Pathology, Semiotics, Botany and Medicine.

Works

Meibom wrote 57 medical treatises. He is known for his discovery of the sebaceous glands in the eyelid that are named after him, the

Meibomian gland Meibomian glands (also called tarsal glands, palpebral glands, and tarsoconjunctival glands) are sebaceous glands along the rims of the eyelid inside the tarsal plate. They produce meibum, an oily substance that prevents evaporation of the eye' ...

s. Beyond that, he wrote Latin poetry, which he published with his grandfather of the same name, Heinrich Meibom: ''Parodiarum horatianarum libri III et sylvarum libri II'', 1588) published as "''Rerum germanicarum scriptores''" in 1688. (This article was partially translated from the German Wikipedia article: Heinrich Meibom (Mediziner) )

External links

Heinrich Meibom at whonamedit.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Meibom, Heinrich 1638 births 1700 deaths 17th-century German physicians German poets Physicians from Lübeck German male poets 17th-century German writers 17th-century German male writers