Pecquet, Jean

1. Dates

Born: Dieppe, 9 May 1622.

Died: Paris, Feb. 1674.

Dateinfo: Dates Certain

Lifespan: 52

2. Father

Occupation: Unknown

No information on financial status.

3. Nationality

Birth: French

Career: French

Death: French

4. Education

Schooling: Paris; Montpelier, M.D.

He enrolled at the Paris Faculty of Medicine about 1646. Finding the atmosphere unfavorable, he matriculated at Montpellier in July 1651, received his licence in February 1652, and M.D. in 1652. As usual, I assume a B.A. or its equivalent.

5. Religion

Affiliation: Catholic (by assumption)

6. Scientific Disciplines

Primary: Anatomy

Subordinate: Medicine

The quantity of his scientific production was slight. In 1647 while still a student, he discovered the chyle reservoir. This discovery helped to confirm Harvey's law of the circulation of blood. Pecquet believed that the ideal physician was the experimenting doctor who actively examined nature instead of passively contemplating it. While still a student, he defied the reigning conceptions and engaged not in the "mute and frozen science" of cadaver anatomy but in anatomia animata on dogs, cattle, pigs, and sheep. In 1651, He published the first edition of his anatomical experiments which enjoyed a great deal of fame.

He participated in experiments on the transfusion of blood performed in 1666-7 at the Academie des Sciences.

Pecquet used liquor as a medicine for many of his patients, and he in fact ended his life when he fell from a horse drunk.

7. Means of Support

Primary: Patronage

He was physician to Nicolas Fouquet, as well as to the Marquise de Sévigné, her daughter, and her grandchildren. When Fouquet was imprisoned, Pecquet was volunarily imprisoned with him and spent 3 1/2 years with him in jail.

8. Patronage

Types: Government Official, Aristrocrat

He was physician to Nicolas Fouquet and to the Marquise de Sévigné, her daughter and grandchildren.

9. Technological Involvement

Type: Medical Practice

10. Scientific Societies

Membership: Académie Royal des Sciences

In 1642 he went to Paris, where he was a member of the various scientific circles that proceeded the Académie des Sciences. He was friendly with the Paris scientists Jacques Mentel, Louis Gayant, Adrien Auzout, and Claude Perrault. In 1666, Colbert chose Pecquet among the first seven members of the Académie. (Considering his connection with Fouquet, this is strange indeed.)

Sources

1. Michaud, ed., Biographie universelle ancienne et moderne, 33, 247-249. CT153.B6
2. P.Gilis, "Pecquet," Bulletin de la Société des sciences médicales et biologiques de Montpellier, 3 (1921-2), 32-60.
3. Desgenettes, "Pecquet," in Dictionaire des sciences médicales-biographie médicale, 6, 1824, 394-5.

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.