Henri Rouvière (23 December 1876 – 26 October 1952) was a professor of

anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal 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 scien ...

born in

Le Bleymard Le Bleymard (; ) is a former commune in the Lozère department in southern France. On 1 January 2017, it was merged into the new commune Mont Lozère et Goulet. The Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson ate in the village on the evening of 28 ...

, France. He studied in

Montpellier Montpellier (; ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of France, department of ...

, receiving his medical doctorate in 1903. He later became a professor of anatomy and

embryology Embryology (from Ancient Greek, Greek ἔμβρυον, ''embryon'', "the unborn, embryo"; and -λογία, ''-logy, -logia'') is the branch of animal biology that studies the Prenatal development (biology), prenatal development of gametes (sex ...

at the

University of Paris The University of Paris (), known Metonymy, metonymically as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 during the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated wit ...

. Collège Henri Rouvière in his hometown of Le Bleymard is named in his honour. Many of Rouvière's anatomical works are preserved in the Musée d'Anatomie Delmas-Orfila-Rouvière in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. Rouvière is remembered for his 1932 publication of "''Anatomie des Lymphatiques de l'Homme''" (translated into English in 1938 as "Anatomy of the Human Lymphatic System"), an exhaustive study involving the delineation and classification of human

lymph nodes A lymph node, or lymph gland, is a kidney-shaped Organ (anatomy), organ of the lymphatic system and the adaptive immune system. A large number of lymph nodes are linked throughout the body by the lymphatic vessels. They are major sites of lymphoc ...

and their associated drainage regions. Rouvière's work was a continuation of the seminal research of the

lymphatic system The lymphatic system, or lymphoid system, is an organ system in vertebrates that is part of the immune system and complementary to the circulatory system. It consists of a large network of lymphatic vessels, lymph nodes, lymphoid organs, lympha ...

done by anatomist Marie Sappey (1810-1896).''Marie Philibert Constant Sappey''
@

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 bibliograp ...

Other significant writings by Rouvière are "''Anatomie humaine descriptive, topographique et fonctionnelle''", "''Atlas aide-mémoire d'anatomie''" and "''L'anatomie humaine''". "''Anatomie humaine descriptive, topographique et fonctionnelle''" is the adopted textbook in several well known medical schools, such as Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Lisboa, in

Lisbon, Portugal Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

. The eponymous "node of Rouvière" (sometimes called "Rouvière node") features his name; this node is the most superior of the lateral group of the retropharyngeal lymph nodes, and is found at the base of the

skull The skull, or cranium, is typically a bony enclosure around the brain of a vertebrate. In some fish, and amphibians, the skull is of cartilage. The skull is at the head end of the vertebrate. In the human, the skull comprises two prominent ...

References

Carcinoma Nasopharynx
(node of Rouvière featured on Slide #6) French anatomists 1876 births 1952 deaths Academic staff of the University of Paris People from Lozère {{france-med-bio-stub