Jean Riolan (the Younger) (1577 – 1657) was a French anatomist who was an influential member of the Medical Faculty of
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. His father, Jean Riolan (the Elder) (1539-1605) was also a noted French anatomist. The younger Riolan was a one-time personal physician to
Marie de' MediciMarie de Médici , was queen consort of France. She was the second wife of King Henry IV of France, of the Bourbon branch of the kings of France...
(1553-1642).
Riolan is remembered for his traditional views towards medicine, and was a major proponent of the teachings of
GalenAelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus , better known as Galen of Pergamum , was a prominent Greek physician and philosopher and probably the most accomplished medical researcher of the Roman period. His theories dominated and influenced Western medical science for well over a millennium...
.
Jean Riolan (the Younger) (1577 – 1657) was a French anatomist who was an influential member of the Medical Faculty of
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. His father, Jean Riolan (the Elder) (1539-1605) was also a noted French anatomist. The younger Riolan was a one-time personal physician to
Marie de' MediciMarie de Médici , was queen consort of France. She was the second wife of King Henry IV of France, of the Bourbon branch of the kings of France...
(1553-1642).
Riolan is remembered for his traditional views towards medicine, and was a major proponent of the teachings of
GalenAelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus , better known as Galen of Pergamum , was a prominent Greek physician and philosopher and probably the most accomplished medical researcher of the Roman period. His theories dominated and influenced Western medical science for well over a millennium...
. He held a differing viewpoint in regards to
William HarveyWilliam Harvey was an English physician who was the first to describe correctly and in exact detail the systemic circulation and properties of blood being pumped around the body by the heart.- Early years:...
's (1578-1657) theory involving the blood's
circulatory system- [Headline text]--75.137.171.242 01:21, 21 October 2009 :bThe circulatory system is an organ system that passes nutrients , gases, hormones, blood cells, nitrogen waste products, etc. to and from cells in the body to help fight diseases and help stabilize body temperature and pHb to maintain...
. Riolan calculated that blood traveled through the blood vessels to the body's extremities and returned to the
heartThe heart is a muscular organ found in all vertebrates that is responsible for pumping blood throughout the blood vessels by repeated, rhythmic contractions...
only two or three times a day. He also postulated that blood often ebbed and flowed in the veins and that it was taken in as nourishment by different parts of the body. Riolan also did not believe that the heart propelled the blood, instead he proposed that the blood kept the heart in motion, analogous to a stream moving the wheel of a water mill.
Riolan had other disagreements with Harvey, such as the role of the
liverThe liver is a vital organ present in vertebrates and some other animals; it has a wide range of functions, including detoxification, protein synthesis, and production of biochemicals necessary for digestion...
as a blood-manufacturing organ. Riolan was an opponent to the practice of
vivisectionFrom Latin vivus + sectio , Vivisection is surgery conducted upon a living organism, typically animals with a central nervous system, to directly view living internal structure for purposes other than the health of the subject....
, asserting that violent and painful deaths suffered by research animals, placed them in an unnatural condition that led to incorrect assumptions about the functionality of healthy animals.
Riolan's best known written works are
l'Anthropographie (1618), which was a treatise on
human anatomyHuman anatomy, which, with physiology and biochemistry, is a complementary basic medical science is primarily the scientific study of the morphology of the adult human body. Anatomy is subdivided into gross anatomy and microscopic anatomy...
and
Opuscula anatomica (1649), where he criticizes Harvey's views of the circulatory system. The eponymous
anastomosisAn anastomosis is a network of streams that both branch out and reconnect, such as blood vessels or leaf veins. The term is used in medicine, biology, mycology and geology.-Medicine:...
of Riolan is named after him, which is the mesenteric arterial connection between the
superiorSee also: Superior Mesenteric Artery SyndromeIn human anatomy, the superior mesenteric artery arises from the anterior surface of the abdominal aorta, just inferior to the origin of the celiac trunk, and supplies the intestine from the lower part of the duodenum through two-thirds of the...
and
inferior mesenteric arteriesIn human anatomy, the inferior mesenteric artery, often abbreviated as IMA, supplies the large intestine from the left colic flexure to the upper part of the rectum, which includes the descending colon, the sigmoid colon, and part of the rectum...
. Marginal fibres of the palpebral part of the orbicularis oculi muscle is known as Riolan's muscle. The cremasteric muscle is also eponymously named after Riolan.