Jan Palfijn

Jan Palfijn (name sometimes spelled Jean Palfyn or Jan Palfyn) (28 November 1650 – 21 April 1730) was a Flemish surgeon and obstetrician who was a native of Kortrijk in the County of Flanders.

He practiced medicine in Ypres and Paris, and in 1697 moved to Ghent, where he remained for the rest of his career.

Palfijn's forceps initially had a problem because the two separate halves occasionally shifted during use.

In 1718 Palfijn published an influential work for surgeons called l'Anatomie du corps humain (Anatomy of the human body).

This biographical article related to medicine in Belgium is a stub.