Jan Palfijn

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jan Palfijn (name sometimes spelled Jean Palfyn) (November 28, 1650 – April 21, 1730) was a Flemish surgeon and obstetrician who was a native of Kortrijk, Flanders. He practiced medicine in Ypres and Paris, and in 1697 moved to Ghent, where he remained for the rest of his career.

Palfijn is remembered for introducing the obstetrical forceps (Main de Palfijn) into medicine in the early 1720s. Palfijn's forceps initially had a problem because the two separate halves occasionally shifted during use. Later the two halves of the forceps were linked by a hinge to correct the problem.

Jan Palfijn, 1758 representation.

In 1718 Palfijn published an influential work for surgeons called l'Anatomie du corps humain (Anatomy of the human body). Reportedly, this book was still in use in Japan in the latter part of the 19th century. Today in Ghent there are the Palfijn Medical Museum and the Jan Palfijn Hospital.

References

Article on Palfijn's forceps
This article is based on a translation of an article from the French Wikipedia.

Authority control	WorldCat VIAF: 84793408 LCCN: n82039318 ISNI: 0000 0000 8345 0226 GND: 119543087 SELIBR: 334870 SUDOC: 074558129

Persondata
Name	Palfijn, Jan
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	November 28, 1650
Place of birth
Date of death	April 21, 1730
Place of death

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.