Alexis Littré

Alexis Littre (17 July 1654^[1] – 3 February 1726) was a French physician and anatomist born in Cordes (currently Cordes-Tolosannes in the department of Tarn-et-Garonne).

Biography

Littre studied medicine in Montpellier and Paris, receiving his doctorate in 1691. In 1699 he became a member of the Académie des Sciences.

In Paris, he taught anatomy and was the author of numerous medical publications. He was the first to give a description of a hernial protrusion of an intestinal diverticulum. This condition is now referred to as "Littre's hernia".^[2]

He also described the mucous urethral glands of the male urethra. These structures were to become known as "Littre's glands",^[3] and their inflammation is sometimes called "littreitis".^[4][5]

In his 1710 treatise Diverses observations anatomiques, Littre was the first to suggest the possibility of performing a lumbar colostomy for an obstruction of the colon.^[6]

Jean Louis Petit was one of his students.^[7] So was Jacques-Bénigne Winslow in 1707. He died in Paris.

References

• Alexis de Littre @ Who Named It