Pourfour Du Petit and the cervical sympathetic nerves

Abstract

François Pourfour du Petit (1664-1741) was a Parisian experimental Neuroanatomist, and Ophthalmologist. Based on his extensive experiences of brain and spinal injuries as a military doctor in the armies of Louis XIV he performed many animal experiments that demonstrated the anatomy and functional significance of the cervical sympathetic nerves, correcting previous errors of Thomas Willis and Raymond Vieussens. He long predated the descriptions of Horner’s syndrome (1869) when he showed that interruption of sympathetic pathways inactivated both the dilator muscle and produces miosis, and the superior tarsal muscle, which produces ptosis and enophthalmos. This was later elaborated by Hare, Weir Mitchell and Claude Bernard.