Alexis Littre (17 July 1654 – 3 February 1726) was a French physician and anatomist born in Cordes (currently Cordes-Tolosannes), in the province of Quercy.
Biography Littre studied medicine in Montpellier and Paris, receiving his doctorate in 1691. In 1699 he became a member of the Académie des Sciences.
In Paris, he taught anatomy and was the author of numerous medical publications. He was the first to give a description of a hernial protrusion of an intestinal diverticulum. This condition is now referred to as "Littre's hernia".Littre's hernia @ Who Named It
He also described the mucous urethral glands of the male urethra. These structures were to become known as "Littre's glands",Littre's glands @ Who Named It and their inflammation is sometimes called "littreitis".Littreitis @ Who Named ItCanadian Practitioner, Volume 31
In his 1710 treatise Diverses observations anatomiques, Littre was the first to suggest the possibility of performing a lumbar colostomy for an obstruction of the colon.Atlas of Intestinal Stomas edited by Victor W. Fazio, James M. Church, James S. Wu
Jean Louis Petit was one of his students.Great Ideas in the History of Surgery by Leo M. Zimmerman, Ilza Veith So was Jacques-Bénigne Winslow in 1707. He died in Paris.
References Alexis de Littre @ Who Named It
Notes Not on July 21, as has been repeated by all his biographers after Fontenelle, but on July 17, 1654: Charles Portal. Histoire de la ville de Cordes, Tarn (1222-1799). Imprimerie Nouguiès, 1902, p. 471. Portal, who wrote the history of Littre's native town, was in a position to access official records.
External links Online articles by Littré 10 articles (2012-05-15) on the site of the Académie des sciences.
Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle, , 1754, (Eulogy)