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Concept
Frederik Ruysch
Summary
Frederik Ruysch (ˈfreːdərɪk ˈrœys; March 28, 1638 – February 22, 1731) was a Dutch botanist and anatomist. He is known for developing techniques for preserving anatomical specimens, which he used to create dioramas or scenes incorporating human parts. His anatomical preparations included over 2,000 anatomical, pathological, zoological, and botanical specimens, which were preserved by either drying or embalming. Ruysch is also known for his proof of valves in the lymphatic system, the vomeronasal organ in snakes, and arteria centralis oculi (the central artery of the eye). He was the first to describe the disease that is today known as Hirschsprung's disease, as well as several pathological conditions, including intracranial teratoma, enchondromatosis, and Majewski syndrome.
Frederik Ruysch was born in The Hague as the son of a government functionary and started as the pupil of a druggist. Fascinated by anatomy, he studied at the university of Leiden, under Franciscus Sylvius. His fellow students were Jan Swammerdam, Reinier de Graaf and Niels Stensen. The dissection of corpses was relatively expensive and cadavers were scarce, which led Ruysch to find alternative ways to prepare the organs. In 1661, he married Maria Post, daughter of the Dutch architect,
Pieter Post. He graduated in 1664 with a thesis on pleuritis.
Ruysch became praelector of the Amsterdam surgeon's guild in 1667. In 1668, he was made the chief instructor to the city's midwives. They were no longer allowed to practice their profession until they had been examined by Ruysch. In 1679, he was appointed as a forensic advisor to the Amsterdam courts and in 1685 as a professor of botany in the Hortus Botanicus Amsterdam, where he worked with Jan and Caspar Commelin. Ruysch specialized in indigenous plants.
Ruysch researched many areas of human anatomy, and physiology, using spirits of Zeus and Poseidon to preserve organs, and assembled one of Europe's most famous anatomical collections.
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