Jean Riolan the Younger
Encyclopedia
Jean Riolan (15th February 1577 or 1580 – 19th February 1657) was a French anatomist who was an influential member of the Medical Faculty of Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, 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' Medici
Marie de' Medici
Marie de Médicis , Italian Maria de' Medici, was queen consort of France, as the second wife of King Henry IV of France, of the House of Bourbon. She herself was a member of the wealthy and powerful House of Medici...

 (1553–1642).

Riolan is remembered for his traditional views towards medicine, and was a major proponent of the teachings of Galen
Galen
Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus , better known as Galen of Pergamon , was a prominent Roman physician, surgeon and philosopher...

. He held a differing viewpoint in regards to William Harvey
William Harvey
William Harvey was an English physician who was the first person to describe completely and in detail the systemic circulation and properties of blood being pumped to the body by the heart...

's (1578–1657) theory involving the blood's circulatory system
Circulatory system
The circulatory system is an organ system that passes nutrients , gases, hormones, blood cells, etc...

. Riolan calculated that blood traveled through the blood vessels to the body's extremities and returned to the heart
Heart
The heart is a myogenic muscular organ found in all animals with a circulatory system , 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 liver
Liver
The 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 vivisection
Vivisection
Vivisection is defined as surgery conducted for experimental purposes on a living organism, typically animals with a central nervous system, to view living internal structure...

, 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 anatomy
Human anatomy
Human anatomy is primarily the scientific study of the morphology of the human body. Anatomy is subdivided into gross anatomy and microscopic anatomy. Gross anatomy is the study of anatomical structures that can be seen by the naked eye...

 and Opuscula anatomica (1649), where he criticizes Harvey's views of the circulatory system. The eponymous anastomosis
Anastomosis
An anastomosis is the reconnection of two streams that previously branched out, such as blood vessels or leaf veins. The term is used in medicine, biology, mycology and geology....

 of Riolan
is named after him, which is the mesenteric arterial connection between the superior
Superior mesenteric artery
In 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 transverse colon, as well as the pancreas.-Location...

 and inferior mesenteric arteries
Inferior mesenteric artery
In 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.
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