Eponym:

Caspar Bartholin the Younger (1655-1738) was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. 
Caspar Bartholin the Younger was a Danish physician anatomist [4]. In 1671, he began his medical studies, and in 1674, aged 19, he was appointed professor of philosophy by the King, Christian IV. In 1678, his father, Thomas Bartholin, granted him the title of Doctor of Medicine. In 1690, he left his academic career to become a high court judge, becoming Procurator General in 1719 and Deputy of Finance in 1724 [4].

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The presence of the greater vestibular glands was first noted in 1575 by Ambroise Pare, in his book entitled “De la generation de l’ Homme.” [1] Then, Francesco Plazzoni provided a description of these glands in his book “De Partibus Generationi.” The glands were then coined the term “Mulierum Prostatae” by Reinier de Graaf who described the function of these glands briefly [2]. Four years after, in 1676, Joseph Duverney provided the first detailed description in cattle and referred to them as “‘vulvovaginal glands’ in his work “Quevres anatomiques” [1]. During that time of Joeseph Duverney’s discovery, Bartholin was friends with Duverney, and he congratulated him for the discovery [1]. Only a year later, Bartholin in a letter to anatomist G. Riva wrote that “… I think that they (the glands) have not yet been described,” and from that letter, the history of Medicine erroneously attributed the eponymic term “glands of Bartholin” to Caspar Bartholin the Younger [1]. 

 

Scientific Contributions:

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Caspar Bartholin the Younger published an anatomical treatise “Dissertatio de Cygni Anatomia” (A Dissertation on the Anatomy of the Swan) by the age of 13 [5]. His significant contribution to anatomical science stemmed from his methodical dissections of cattle, in which he observed and described the greater vestibular glands [5]. He suggested that these glands, already identified in cattle, might also exist in human females. This discovery was reported in 1677 in his De Ovariis Mulierum et Generationis Historia (On the Ovaries of Women and an Account of Procreation). These glands were then attributed to his name as “glands of Bartholin” by the history of Medicine [5].  

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To this day, inflammation of the greater vestibular glands is known as Bartholinitis. Simple occlusion of the ducts can lead to a Bartholin cyst, whereas severe infections cause a Bartholin abscess. Caspar Bartholin the Younger also discovered the greater sublingual salivary duct, which also sometimes bears his eponym [5].