Raymond Vieussens

Raymond Vieussens was a French anatomist from Le Vigan, born around 1635, although some sources place his birth as late as 1641, and dying on 16 August 1715. He studied medicine at the University of Montpellier, earned his degree there in 1670 and later became head physician at the Saint-Eloi hospital in Montpellier. He is remembered for pioneer work in cardiology and for anatomical studies of the brain and spinal cord, and he regarded the English anatomist Thomas Willis as a major influence. He is credited as the first physician to give accurate descriptions of the left ventricle and several blood vessels of the heart, and the first to describe mitral stenosis comprehensively. Several structures bear his name, among them the superior medullary velum, called Vieussens' valve, and the small openings in the veins of the right atrium known as Vieussens' foramina. His works include Neurographia universalis of 1684 and Novum vasorum corporis humani systema of 1705.