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{{Short description|Danish physician, mathematician and theologian (1616–1680)}}
{{Infobox scientist
|name              = Thomas Bartholin
|image             = Thomas bartholin.jpg
|caption           = Thomas Bartholin
|birth_date        = 20 October 1616
|birth_place       = [[Malmø]], [[Denmark-Norway]]
|death_date        = 4 December 1680 (aged 64)
|death_place       = [[Copenhagen]]
|nationality       = [[Denmark|Danish]]
|field             = [[Medicine]]
|work_institutions = [[University of Copenhagen]]
|alma_mater        = [[University of Padua]]
|academic_advisors  = [[Johannes Walaeus]]
|notable_students =
|known_for         = [[Lymphatic system]]
|influences        =
|influenced        =
}}
'''Thomas Bartholin''' ({{IPAc-en|b|ɑr|ˈ|t|oʊ|l|ɪ|n|,_|ˈ|b|ɑr|t|əl|ɪ|n}}; [[Onomastic Latinization|Latinized]] as ''Thomas Bartholinus''; 20 October 1616&nbsp;– 4 December 1680) was a [[Denmark|Danish]] [[physician]], [[mathematician]], and [[theology|theologian]]. He discovered the [[lymphatic system]] in humans and advanced the theory of refrigeration [[anesthesia]], being the first to describe it scientifically.

Thomas Bartholin came from a family that has become famous for its pioneering scientists, twelve of whom became professors at the [[University of Copenhagen]]. Three generations of the Bartholin family made significant contributions to anatomical science and medicine in the 17th and 18th centuries: Thomas Bartholin's father, [[Caspar Bartholin the Elder]] (1585–1629), his brother [[Rasmus Bartholin]] (1625–1698), and his son [[Caspar Bartholin the Younger]] (1655–1738).<ref name="Hill">Hill, Robert V. (2007) [https://archive.today/20121216160940/http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/abstract/112659266/ABSTRACT?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0 "A Glimpse of Our Past&nbsp;– The contributions of the Bartholin family to the study and practice of clinical anatomy"]. Clinical Anatomy, Volume 20, Issue 2 (March 2007), pp. 113&nbsp;– 115. Retrieved 22 February 2007.</ref> Thomas Bartholin's son {{ill|Thomas Bartholin the Younger|da|Thomas Bartholin den yngre}} (1659–1690) became a professor of history at the University of Copenhagen and was later appointed royal antiquarian and secretary to the Royal Archives.<ref>{{cite book|last=Jónsson|first=Már|title=Arnas Magnæus Philologus (1663–1730)|year=2012|publisher=University Press of Southern Denmark|location=[Odense]|pages=48–49}}</ref>

== Personal life ==
Thomas Bartholin was the second of the six sons of Caspar Bartholin the Elder, a physician born in [[Malmø]], [[Scania]], and his spouse Anne Fincke. Bartholin the Elder published the first collected anatomical work in 1611. This work was later augmented, illustrated and revised by Thomas Bartholin, becoming the standard reference on [[anatomy]]; the son notably added updates on [[William Harvey]]'s theory of [[blood circulation]] and on the [[lymphatic system]].

Bartholin visited the Italian botanist [[Pietro Castelli]] at [[Messina]] in 1644. In 1663 Bartholin bought [[Hagestedgård]], which burned down in 1670 including his [[library]], with the loss of many [[manuscript]]s. [[Christian V of Denmark|King Christian V of Denmark]] appointed Bartholin as his physician with a substantial salary and freed the farm from taxation as recompense for the loss. In 1680 Bartholin's health failed, the farm was sold, and he moved back to Copenhagen, where he died. He was buried in [[Church of Our Lady (Copenhagen)|Vor Frue Kirke]] (Church of Our Lady).

The ''Bartholinsgade'', a street in Copenhagen, is named for the family. Nearby is the Bartholin Institute (''Bartholin Institutet''). One of the buildings of the [[University of Aarhus]] is named after him.

== Contributions to medical research ==
In December 1652, Bartholin published the first full description of the human [[lymphatic system]]. [[Jean Pecquet]] had previously noted the lymphatic system in [[animal]]s in 1651, and Pecquet's discovery of the thoracic duct and its entry into the veins made him the first person to describe the correct route of the lymphatic fluid into the blood.<ref>Detmar, Michael and Mihaela Skobe (2000). [http://www.nature.com/jidsp/journal/v5/n1/full/5640004a.html "Structure, Function, and Molecular Control of the Skin Lymphatic System"]. Journal of Investigative Dermatology Symposium Proceedings (2000) 5, 14–19. Retrieved 22 February 2007.</ref> Shortly after the publication of Pecquet's and Bartholin's findings, a similar discovery of the human lymphatic system was published by [[Olof Rudbeck]] in 1653, although Rudbeck had presented his findings at the court of Queen Christina of Sweden in April–May 1652, before Bartholin, but delayed in writing about it until 1653 (after Bartholin).  As a result, an intense priority dispute ensued.<ref>Eriksson, G. (2004). ''Svensk medicinhistorisk tidskrift'', 2004;8(1):39-44. In Swedish. English abstract at [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=16025602&query_hl=1&itool=pubmed_docsum Olaus Rudbeck as scientist and professor of medicine], U.S. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 22 February 2007.</ref> [[Niels Stensen]] or Steno became Bartholin's most famous pupil.

Thomas' publication ''De nivis usu medico observationes variae'' Chapter XXII, contains the first known mention of refrigeration [[anaesthesia]], a technique whose invention Thomas Bartholin credits to the [[Italy|Italian]] [[Marco Aurelio Severino]] of Naples.<ref>{{google books|UYY8AAAAcAAJ|De nivis, p. 132|page=132}} : " nix affricata induit stuporem. Id me docuit Marcus Aurelius Severinus in Gymnasio Neapolitano ".</ref> According to Bartholin, Severino was the first to present the use of freezing mixtures of snow and ice (1646), and Thomas Bartholin initially learnt about the technique from him during a visit to Naples.

[[Bartholin–Patau syndrome]], a congenital syndrome of multiple abnormalities produced by [[trisomy 13]], was first described by Bartholin in 1656.<ref>{{WhoNamedIt|synd|1024}}</ref><ref>
{{cite book|last=Bartholinus |first=Thomas |title=Historiarum anatomicarum rariorum centuria III et IV. Ejusdem cura accessere observationes anatomicae. |location=The Hague |publisher=Vlacq |date=1656 |page=95 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PEuIXyYL0VUC}}</ref>

Caspar Bartholin the Elder, Thomas Bartholin's father; his brother Rasmus Bartholin; and his son Caspar Bartholin the Younger (who first described "[[Bartholin's glands]]"), all contributed to the practice of modern medicine through their discoveries of important anatomical structures and phenomena.<ref name="Hill" /> Bartholin the Elder started his tenure as professor at Copenhagen University in 1613, and over the next 125 years, the scientific accomplishments of the Bartholins while serving on the medical faculty of the [[University of Copenhagen]] won international acclaim and contributed to the reputation of the institution.

== Selected works ==
[[File:Bartholin - Antiquitatum veteris puerperii synopsis, 1676 - 3041273.tif|thumb|''Antiquitatum veteris puerperii synopsis'', 1676]]
* ''Historiarum anatomicarum rariorum [...]'' (Case histories of unusual anatomical and clinical structures, including descriptions and illustrations of anomalies and normal structures)
** {{google books|uuBEAAAAcAAJ|... centuria I et II}}, Amsterdam, 1654.
** {{google books|PEuIXyYL0VUC|... centuria III et IV}}. The Hague: Vlacq, 1657.
** {{google books|NzyXGTcQzP0C|... centuria V et VI}}, Copenhagen: P. Haubold, 1661 (with ''Mantissa anatomica'', by Johannes Rodius).
* ''De unicornu''. Padua, 1645.
* ''De Angina Puerorum Campaniae Siciliaeque Epidemica Exercitationes''. Paris, 1646.
* {{google books|g1VCAAAAcAAJ|De lacteis thoracicis in homine brutisque nuperrime observatis historia anatomica}}, Copenhagen: M. Martzan, [[1652 in science|1652]] (Bartholin's discovery of the thoracic duct).
* ''Vasa lymphatica nuper Hafniae in animalibus inventa et hepatis exsequiae''. Hafniae (Copenhagen), Petrus Hakius, 1653.
* ''Vasa lymphatica in homine nuper inventa''. Hafniae (Copenhagen), 1654.
* ''Historarium anatomicarum rariorum centuria I-VI''. Copenhagen, 1654–1661.
* ''Anatomia''. The Hague. Ex typographia Adriani Vlacq, 1655.
* ''Dispensarium hafniense''. Copenhagen, 1658.
* ''De nivis usu medico observationes variae. Accessit D. Erasmi Bartholini de figura nivis dissertatio.'' With a book by Rasmus Bartholin. Copenhagen: Typis Matthiase Godichii, sumptibus Petri Haubold, 1661. (Contains the first known mention of refrigeration anaesthesia)
* ''Cista medica hafniensis''. Copenhagen, 1662.
* ''De pulmonum substantia et motu''. Copenhagen, 1663.
* ''De insolitis partus humani viis''. Copenhagen, 1664.
* ''De medicina danorum domestica''. Copenhagen, 1666.
* ''De flammula cordis epistola''. Copenhagen, 1667.
* ''Orationes et dissertationes omnino varii argumenti''. Copenhagen, 1668.
* ''Carmina varii argumenti''. Copenhagen, 1669.
* ''De medicis poetis dissertatio''. Hafinae, apud D. Paulli, 1669.
* ''De bibliothecae incendio''. Copenhagen, 1670.
* ''De morbis biblicis miscellanea medica''. Francofurti, D. Paulli, 1672.
* ''De cruce Christi hypomnemata IV'', Typis Andreae ab Hoogenhuysen, Vesaliae (Wesel), 1673.
* ''Acta medica et philosophica''. 1673–1680.

== References ==
<references />

== External links ==
{{commonscat|Thomas Bartholin}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070930155524/http://www.botanicus.org/creator.asp?creatorid=704 View digitized titles by Thomas Bartholin in ''Botanicus.org'']
* [http://www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/894.html Thomas Bartholin in ''Whonamedit.com'']
* Bartholin's (1647) [http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/cdm/ref/collection/color/id/28550 ''De luce animalium'']&nbsp;– digital facsimile at the [[Linda Hall Library]]
* [https://myndir.uvic.ca/ThoBar01.html MyNDIR (My Norse Digital Image Repository)]  Illustrations by Thomas Bartholin from manuscripts and early print books.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bartholin, Thomas}}
[[Category:1616 births]]
[[Category:1680 deaths]]
[[Category:17th-century Danish scientists]]
[[Category:17th-century Danish mathematicians]]
[[Category:Danish anatomists]]
[[Category:Danish mathematicians]]
[[Category:Danish medical writers]]
[[Category:17th-century Danish landowners]]
[[Category:17th-century Danish physicians]]
[[Category:17th-century Lutherans]]
[[Category:History of anatomy]]
[[Category:University of Padua alumni]]
[[Category:Rectors of the University of Copenhagen]]
[[Category:Burials at the Church of Our Lady, Copenhagen]]
[[Category:Danish librarians]]
[[Category:Bartholin family]]