Gayant, Louis

1. Dates

Born: Maestricht (Netherlands), 1673

Died: fl

Dateinfo: Dates Certain

Lifespan:

2. Father

Occupation: No Information

No information on financial status.

3. Nationality

Birth: It appears to be known that he was born in Clermont. en Beauvais, France, although the year is not known.

Career: French

Death: Although, strictly speaking, Gayant died in the. Netherlands, it was at the seige of Maestricht, as part of the French army. For my purposes, he died in a French context.

4. Education

Schooling: No University

He was trained in medicine. It is not clear that he did in fact have an M.D.

5. Religion

Affiliation: Unknown

6. Scientific Disciplines

Primary: Anatomy

He was one of the most able anatomists of his time. His name seems to be associated firmly with the demonstration of a number of venous valves which were already known but not universally accepted in 1667, and with the operation of blood transfusion performed in 1667. He was an important member of the group working in comparative anatomy in the Academy and he contributed substantially to their series of publications.

7. Means of Support

Primary: Medicine, Government

He was serving as a military physician at the time of his death. He appears to have been a surgeon.

By 1667 he became a important member of the group working in comparative anatomy in the Academy.

8. Patronage

Type: Unknown

His various appointments, including that with the military, are inconceivable without patronage.

9. Technological Involvement

Type: Medical Practice

10. Scientific Societies

Memberships: Académie Royal des Sciences, 1667-1673; Medical College

Provost of the Company of Surgeons in Paris.

Collaboration with Jean Pecquet, Claude Perrault, and others on anatomical dissections.

Sources

1. "Louis Gayant", in Biographie medicine, 2, 125. R134 .B358.
2. F.J.Cole, A History of Comparative Anatomy, (London, 1944), pp. 393-442. QL805 .C6
3. Joseph Schiller, "Les laboratoires d'anatomie et botanique à l'Académie des sciences au XVIIe siècle", Revue d'histoire des sciences et de leurs applications, 17 (1964), pp. 97-114.
4. Dictionnaire de biographie française, 15, 907.
5. A. Hirsch, Biographisches Lexikon der hervorragenden Aerzte aller Zeiten und Voelker (3rd ed., Munich, 1962), 2, 701-2.
6. Antoine L.J. Bayle ands _____ Thillaye, Biographie médicale, (Paris, 1855).

Compiled by:

Richard S. Westfall

Department of History and Philosophy of Science

Indiana University

Note: the creators of the Galileo Project and this catalogue cannot answer email on geneological questions.