Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Paris, François Pourfour du Petit (1664-1741), ophthalmologist, doctor, surgeon, botanist, leaves to posterity a large number of works. From Collège Dormans-Beauvais to the Royal Academy of Sciences, his career follows that of the first biological revolution that began in the 16th century. From his letter of 1710, we note the evidence of the pyramidal tract and on his 1727's dissertation, we can retain the requalification of the intercostal nerve : from the cerebral nerve, he becomes a spinal nerve. His numerous dissertations on ocular anatomy, published in the History and Dissertations of the Royal Academy of Sciences between 1727 and 1731, give him a precursory role in the history of nascent ophthalmology. But it is above all a method that should be highlighted. Although the concept of experimental physiology seems to belong to the nineteenth century, it is the foundation on which François Pourfour Du Petit's anatomical investigations are based