Thomas Bartholin

Thomas Bartholin was born in Copenhagen on October 20, 1616, into the illustrious Bartholin medical dynasty. Studying at Leiden, Padua, and Basel, Bartholin was appointed Professor of Anatomy at the University of Copenhagen in 1648.

In December 1652, Bartholin announced his discovery of the thoracic duct and the human lymphatic system in his treatise Vasa lymphatica, proving that lymph is an independent circulatory network separate from blood. He was the first physician to describe the use of snow and ice as local anesthesia, and his anatomical textbooks were used across 17th-century Europe.