Jean Cruveilhier

Overview
Jean Cruveilhier (born 1791 in Limoges, France; died 1874 in Jussac) was a French anatomist.

He was educated at the University of Paris, where in 1825 he became professor of anatomy. In 1836 he became the first occupant of the recently founded chair of pathological anatomy. Puerto Rican pro-independence leader, surgeon and Légion d'honneur laureate, Ramón Emeterio Betances, was one of his prominent students.

Cruveilhier was an extremely influential anatomist during the mid-19th century. He is especially known for his work regarding the nervous system. He described the pathology of the neuronal lesions observed in multiple sclerosis, and published his findings and illustrations in 1842. He was also the first to record the clinical history of a patient who had the disease. However, it wasn't until 1868 that multiple sclerosis was discovered by neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot to be a distinct, separate disease.

Cruveilhier was a prolific writer, among is works were Anatomie pathologique du corps humain (1829-1842) and Life of Dupuytren (1840), which was a memorial to his teacher, Guillaume Dupuytren. Two eponymous medical terms of his are; Cruveilhier's sign (persistent hypertension and occlusion of the portal vein) and Cruveilhier-Baumgarten disease (cirrhosis of the liver without ascites), which is named along with anatomist Paul Clemens von Baumgarten.

Works

 * Anatomie descriptive (1834-1836)
 * Anatomie pathologique du corps humain (1829-1842), with many colored plates
 * Trait d'anatomie pathologique génerale (1849-1864)
 * Anatomie du système nerveux de l'homme (1845)
 * Traite d'anatomie descriptive (1851)