Meckel, Johann Friedrich
(German anatomist (October 17, 1781 - October 31, 1833), Halle, Prussia)
Epoch-making discoveries in comparative anatomy
Johann Friedrich Meckel, known as the "Younger", was destined to become a physician. He was born in a family of prominent physicians. His father, Philipp Friedrich Theodore Meckel (1756-1803) was professor of anatomy and surgical obstetrics at the University of Halle and his grandfather, Johann Friedrich Meckel the "Elder" (1724-1774) was one of Haller’s most brilliant disciples and both had occupied the same prestigious chair.
Meckel's younger brother, August Albrecht Meckel (1790-1892), also had the family's academic attributes and became professor of anatomy and forensic medicine at the University of Bonn in 1821. Johann Friedrich, Jr., however, as a child had an outspoken aversion to medicine in general, and anatomy in particular, maybe as a consequence of his having to help his father perform dissections.
- Still he did become a physician; in fact, the greatest of his family, and one of the greatest anatomists of his time.
- His painstaking observations in comparative and pathological anatomy furnished a wealth of new knowledge, which Meckel attempted to organize along certain evolutionary schemes popular in his day.
- Meckel's father was summoned to St. Petersburg in 1797 to deliver the Czarina's child and Meckel, who was then sixteen years old, had the privilege of accompanying him on this journey.
- In the following year he started his medical studies at Halle, then a bastion of academic freedom and objective scientific inquiry.
- Among his most lasting and impressive contributions was the study of the abnormalities occurring during the embryological development.
- Meckel’s teratology was the first comprehensive description of birth defects, a detailed and sober analysis of a topic which had hitherto been approached with a great deal of fantasy and moral bias.
Meckel medical terms used in modern medicine
Meckel's diverticulum is an outpouching of the small bowel. About one in every fifty people has a Meckel's diverticulum. It is usually located about two feet before the junction of the small bowel with the colon (the large intestine) in the right lower abdomen.
The diverticulum can become inflamed, ulcerate and perforate (break open or rupture). This can cause obstruction of the small bowel.
If it is inflamed or perforated, Meckel's diverticulum is usually removed by surgery.