Showing posts with label Anatomy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Anatomy. Show all posts

7 November 2018

Gaspare Tagliacozzi - surgeon

Professor invented rhinoplasty procedure


Gaspare Tagliacozzi perfected a way of forming a new nose using skin from the arm
Gaspare Tagliacozzi perfected a way of
forming a new nose using skin from the arm
Pioneering plastic surgeon Gaspare Tagliacozzi died on this day in 1599 in Bologna.

During his career, Tagliacozzi had developed what became known as ‘the Italian method’ for nasal reconstruction.

He improved on the procedure that had been carried out by the 15th century Sicilian surgeons, Gustavo Branca, and his son, Antonio.

Tagliacozzi wrote a book, De Curtorum Chirugia per Insitionem - On the Surgery of Mutilation by Grafting - which described in great detail the procedures carried out in the past to repair noses amputated during battle.

Surgeons who came after him credit him with single-handedly revolutionising the procedure and inventing what is today referred to as a rhinoplasty procedure.

Tagliacozzi was born in Bologna in 1545. He studied medicine, natural sciences and anatomy at the University of Bologna, gaining a degree in philosophy and medicine by the age of 24.

After he was appointed professor of surgery and professor of anatomy at the University he taught at the Archiginnasio, famous for its anatomical theatre, where he procured the bodies of executed prisoners to use in dissections.

An illustration of a patient with arm strapped in place across the nose
An illustration of a patient with arm
strapped in place across the nose
The operation for nasal reconstruction had been developed in Italy as early as the 15th century because of injuries sustained in battle, or when duelling using rapiers.

Tagliacozzi improved the reconstructive surgery method by taking skin from the arm using specially designed instruments to make the correct shape.

The flap of skin from the arm was attached to the nose and the patient’s arm was bandaged in the raised position for about 20 days, or until the skin of the arm had attached itself to the nose. The pedicle was then severed from the arm and after 14 days the attached skin was shaped so that it resembled a nose.

In his book explaining the procedure he writes: ‘We restore, rebuild and make whole those parts which nature hath given, but which fortune has taken away. Not so much that it may delight the eye, but that it might buoy up the spirit, and help the mind of the afflicted.’

Tagliacozzi died in Bologna on 7 November 1599 and was buried in the church of San Giovanni Battista de’ Celestini, as he had stipulated in his will. A solemn mass attended by doctors and colleagues was held in his honour later that month in the same church.

However, his body was later exhumed on the orders of the Catholic Church and reburied on unconsecrated ground, the church hierarchy having deemed that his surgery interfered with the handiwork of God.

After Tagliacozzi’s death, ‘the Italian method’ was not used again until the 19th century when a German plastic surgeon performed the procedure again.

Tagliacozzi also wrote a book about reconstructive surgery procedures for lips and ears.

The statue of Tagliacozzi in the anatomical theatre of the Archiginnasio
The statue of Tagliacozzi in the
anatomical theatre of the Archiginnasio
Travel tip:

The world’s first university was established in Bologna in 1088 and attracted popes and kings as well as students of the calibre of Dante, Copernicus and Boccaccio. You can visit the university’s former anatomy theatre, where Tagliacozzi worked, in the oldest university building, the Archiginnasio, which is open to the public Monday to Saturday from 9 am to 1 pm, admission free. There is a wooden statue of Tagliacozzi holding a nose in his right hand, set in a niche in the wall of the anatomy theatre.

The church of San Giovanni Battista de' Celestina in the centre of Bologna
The church of San Giovanni Battista de'
Celestina in the centre of Bologna


Travel tip:

The church of San Giovanni Battista de’ Celestini in Bologna is a Renaissance-style Roman Catholic church located on Via D'Azeglio, where the Celestine order had built a monastery and church in the 14th century. In 1482, the church had become the home of the parish.It was rebuilt in 1535 on the site of a 13th century building in Piazza de’ Celestini.

More reading:

The 17th century anatomist whose work still benefits astronauts today

How Gabriele Falloppio made key discoveries about human reproduction

Italy's 18th century cataract surgeon

Also on this day:

The feast day of Ercolano, patron saint of Perugia

1512: Niccolò Machiavelli dismissed from office

1944: The birth of football legend Luigi Riva


Home

8 June 2018

Guido Banti – physician

Doctor was the first to define leukaemia


Guido Banti was among the first doctors to understand the disease process in leukaemia
Guido Banti was among the first doctors to
understand the disease process in leukaemia
The innovative physician and pathologist Guido Banti was born on this day in 1852 in Montebicchieri in Tuscany.

His work on the spleen led him to discover that a chronic congestive enlargement of the spleen resulted in the premature destruction of red blood cells. Closely related to leukaemia, this was later named 'Banti’s disease' in his honour.

Banti’s father was a physician and sent him to study medicine at the University of Pisa and the Medical School in Florence.

He graduated in 1877 and was appointed an assistant at the Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova and also as an assistant in the laboratory of Pathological Anatomy.

The ability to observe patients in bed and then carry out post mortem examinations was to prove fundamental to his work.

Within five years he had become chief of medical services. In 1895, after a five year spell in a temporary post he was appointed Ordinary Professor of Pathological Anatomy in the medical school in Florence. He remained in this post for 25 years.

Banti published the first textbook in Italy on the techniques of bacteriology in 1885.

Banti worked for a while at the Santa Maria Nuova Hospital, the oldest still-active medical institution in Florence
Banti worked for a while at the Santa Maria Nuova Hospital,
the oldest still-active medical institution in Florence
He studied and also wrote about heart enlargement, the causes of aphasia and hyperplastic gastritis. He spent three years studying cancer cells and published a study of typhoid fever.

In 1895 he wrote about endocarditis and nephritis and atherosclerosis of the kidney.

He studied enlargement of the spleen and wrote a paper describing the condition that would become known as Banti’s disease. He proposed that the enlarged spleen was the cause of red cell destruction which led to anaemia and that only removal of the spleen could stop this process. On his advice, the first splenectomy for haemolytic jaundice was carried out in Florence in 1903.

Banti’s name is still primarily connected with leukaemia and he opposed the views of other scientists about the disease. In 1913 Banti decided that leukaemias are systemic diseases arising from the haematopoietic structures, bone marrow and lymph glands and are the result of the uncontrolled proliferation of staminal blood cells. This accords closely with the modern definition of leukaemia.

Banti died in Florence in 1935 aged 72.

The Church of Santa Lucia in Montebicchieri
The Church of Santa Lucia in Montebichieri
Travel tip:

Montebichieri, where Guido Banti was born, is a village to the southwest of San Miniato in the province of Pisa in Tuscany. In the centre of the village is the 14th century Church of Santa Lucia and a tower and parts of the original walls still survive from the medieval fortifications. Many of the houses are now empty and abandoned.

The bust of Guido Banti at the Florence Institute
The bust of Guido Banti at
the Florence Institute
Travel tip:

There is a bust of Guido Banti in the Institute of Anatomy and Pathology in Florence.  The Institute, established in 1824, is famous for its collection of wax pathological models created in the 19th century, which were invaluable teaching tools in medical schools, where living examples, cadavers, and other visual aids of many pathologies were often scarce. One of the most famous pieces in the museum is the 1851 “leper” model by artist Luigi Calamai.  The museum, which was originally housed at the University of Florence, was moved to the city’s Careggi Hospital in 1859.

Also on this day:

1671: The birth of Venetian composer Tomaso Albinoni

1823: The birth of Pompeii archaeologist Giuseppe Fiorelli

Home

30 May 2018

Andrea Verga - anatomist and neurologist

Professor among founding fathers of Italian psychiatry


Andrea Verga was one of the first to see how criminal behaviour could be driven by insanity
Andrea Verga was one of the first to see how criminal
behaviour could be driven by insanity
The anatomist and neurologist Andrea Verga, who was one of the first Italian doctors to carry out serious research into mental illness, was born on this day in 1811 in Treviglio in Lombardy.

Verga’s career was notable for his pioneering study of the criminally insane, for some of the first research into acrophobia - the fear of heights - which was a condition from which he suffered, and for the earliest known experiments in the therapeutic use of cannabis.

For a number of years, he held the post of Professor of Psychiatry at the Ospedale Maggiore in Milan. He also founded, in conjunction with another physician, Serafino Biffi, the Italian Archives for Nervous Disease and Mental Illness, a periodical in which research findings could be shared and discussed.

Verga also acquired an in-depth knowledge of the anatomy of the bone system and the nervous system, and was the first to identify an anomaly of the brain that occurs in only one in six people, which became known as ‘Verga’s ventricle’.

The son of a coachman, Verga was an enthusiastic student of classics whom his parents encouraged to pursue a career in the church, yet it was medicine that became his calling.  He went to the University of Pavia, graduating in 1832 and becoming assistant to Bartolomeo Panizza, whose previous students had included Italy’s first Nobel Prize winner, Camillo Golgi.

Verga was a driving force behind Milan's Provincial
Psychiatric Hospital at Mombello 
Verga spent much of his working life with sight in only one eye, the consequence, it might be said, of his failing to remember to take literally the biblical proverb ‘physician heal thyself’. During an outbreak of cholera, in which he attended many sick patients, he developed a serious eye infection, which he neglected to treat, and went blind in the affected eye.

Nonetheless, steering himself towards the field of psychiatry and mental illness, in 1843 he moved to Milan, where he worked at the private hospital of San Celso, which cared for mental patients from the city’s wealthier classes.

While working at San Celso, he is thought to have participated with other physicians in experiments on the therapeutic use of cannabis in mental health conditions. The plant had a history of medical use in a number of ancient civilisations.

In 1848, amid the chaos of the first Italian War of Independence, he became the director of the Pia Casa della Senavra, Milan’s first public mental hospital. For several years his movements came under the scrutiny of the occupying Austrians, yet in 1852 he was offered the chance to lead psychiatric research at the city’s Ospedale Maggiore.

Andrea Verga's tomb at the Monumental Cemetery in Milan
Andrea Verga's tomb at the Monumental Cemetery in Milan
There he pushed for reforms that fundamentally improved the service of medicine and surgery in Milan. With Biffi he helped construct a more accurate definition of the symptoms of mental illness and the concept of insanity, and its recognition as grounds for a different interpretation, in some cases, of criminal behaviour.

Also, along with Biffi and Cesare Castiglioni, he argued the need for a more modern mental hospital in Milan. His arguments were rewarded when Senevra was closed and replaced, in 1878, by the Provincial Psychiatric Hospital of Milan at Mombello. 

Devoted to his work throughout his life, Verga never married. He did find time to become involved in local politics, however, as a councillor and in 1876 was appointed a Senator of the Kingdom of Italy.

He died in 1895 and was buried in the Monumental Cemetery in Milan.

The Basilica of San Martino in Treviglio
The Basilica of San Martino in Treviglio
Travel tip:

The small city of Treviglio in Lombardy, where Verga was born, is about 20km (13 miles) south of Bergamo and 41km (26 miles) northeast of Milan. It developed from a fortified town in the early Middle Ages and, having been at times controlled by the French and the Spanish, became part of the Kingdom of Italy in 1860.  Its most visited attraction is the Basilica of San Martino, originally built in 1008 and reconstructed in 1482, with a Baroque façade from 1740, which is in Piazza Luciano Manara. Opposite the basilica is the historic Caffè Milano, founded in 1896, which retains the original turn-of-the century furniture and a counter in Art Nouveau style.

The bust of Andrea Verga in Largo Francesco Richini in Milan
The bust of Andrea Verga in Largo
Francesco Richini in Milan
Travel tip:

An enormous white marble bust, dedicated in 1903 to Andrea Verga, can be found in Largo Francesco Richini in the centre of Milan, opposite what was formerly the Ospedale Maggiore, which is now part of the campus of the University of Milan, created by the Milan sculptor Giulio Branca. The Ospedale Maggiore moved early in the 20th century to a vast new site not far away, opposite the university buildings on the other side, bordered by Via Francesco Sforza.

Also on this day:

1875: The birth of Giovanni Gentile, the so-called 'philosopher of Fascism' 

1924: The day tragic politician Giacomo Matteotti spoke out against Fascist thugs

Home













20 May 2018

Hieronymus Fabricius - anatomist and surgeon

Research pioneer known as “Father of Embryology”


Girolamo Fabrizio spent much of his academic life at the University of Padua
Girolamo Fabrizio spent much of his academic
life at the University of Padua
The pioneering anatomist and physiologist known in academic history as Hieronymus Fabricius, whose Italian name was Girolamo Fabrizio, was born on this day in 1537 in Acquapendente, in Lazio.

Fabrizio, who designed the first permanent theatre for public anatomical dissections, advanced the knowledge of the make-up of the human body in many areas, including the digestive system, the eyes and ears, and the veins.

But his most significant discoveries were in embryology.  He investigated the foetal development of many animals and humans and produced the first detailed description of the placenta. For this he became known as the "Father of Embryology".

Fabrizio spent most of his life at the University of Padua, where he was a student under the guidance of Gabriele Falloppio, who discovered the tube connecting the ovaries with the uterus that became known as the Fallopian tube.

He succeeded Falloppio as chair of surgery and anatomy, holding the post from 1562 to 1613 and building a reputation that attracted students from all of Europe.

Among his pupils were the English anatomist William Harvey, as well as Giulio Casseri and Adriaan van den Spiegel, both of whom went on to become significant anatomists in Italy. Indeed, both also occupied the chair of surgery and anatomy at the University of Padua.

The Teatro Anatomico at the University of Padua was designed by Girolamo Fabrizio
The Teatro Anatomico at the University of Padua was
designed by Girolamo Fabrizio
Fabrizio’s dissections of animals enabled him to make discoveries about the formation of the fetus, the structure of the esophagus, stomach and intestines, and the workings of the eye, the ear, and the larynx. He was the first to note that the pupil of the eye changes in size.

He was the first to identify the membranous folds that he called "valves" in the interior of veins, which are now understood to prevent retrograde flow of blood within them.

Fabrizio also described the cerebral fissure separating the temporal lobe from the frontal lobe of the brain, although it is only recently that he has been credited with the discovery.

The statue of Girolamo Fabrizio in his home town of Acquapendente
The statue of Girolamo Fabrizio in
his home town of Acquapendente
He was a practising surgeon as well as an anatomist. Extraordinarily, the technique he invented to perform a tracheotomy is very similar to the procedure used in the operation today.

Fabrizio never actually performed such an operation himself, but in his writing he described using a vertical incision and a tracheostomy tube, a short, straight cannula to which he added wings to prevent the tube from disappearing into the trachea.

The technique may have been used for the first time by the surgeon Marco Aurelio Severino during a diptheria epidemic in Naples in 1610.

Fabrizio died in Padua in 1619 at the age of 82. There is a monument to him in his home town of Acquapendente.

The castle at Torre Alfina, near Acquapendente
The castle at Torre Alfina, near Acquapendente
Travel tip:

Acquapendente is a medieval town in northern Lazio, about 140km (87 miles) north of Rome, just under 30km (18 miles) west of Orvieto. It takes its name - literally translated as ‘hanging water’ - from the small waterfalls that flow into the Paglia river. Among the main sights is the Duomo di Acquapendente, which developed from a former Benedictine monastery, developed in the 12th century. A short distance from Acquapendente is he castle of Torre Alfina, the central tower of which was built by the Lombard king Desiderius.

Palazzo Bo, the historic home of the University of Padua
Palazzo Bo, the historic home of the University of Padua
Travel tip:

The founding of the University of Padua is officially recorded to have taken place in 1222 but this was actually the first time it was mentioned in an historical document, which means it is certainly older. It was formed when a large group of students and professors left the University of Bologna in search of more academic freedom. The first subjects to be taught were law and theology.

Also on this day:

1470: The birth of the poet Pietro Bembo, lover of Lucrezia Borgia

1943: The birth of the veteran singer Al Bano

Home


25 February 2018

Giovanni Battista Morgagni - anatomist

The father of modern pathological anatomy


Giovanni Battista Morgagni taught at the  University of Padua for 56 years
Giovanni Battista Morgagni taught at the
University of Padua for 56 years
Anatomist Giovanni Battista Morgagni, who is credited with turning pathology into a science, was born on this day in 1682 in Forlì in Emilia-Romagna.

Morgagni was professor of Anatomy at the University of Padua for 56 years and taught thousands of medical students during his time there.

He was sent by his parents to study philosophy and medicine at the University of Bologna when he was 18 and he graduated as a doctor from both faculties.

In 1706 he published his work, Adversaria Anatomica, which was to be the first volume of a series and helped him become known throughout Europe as an accurate anatomist.

He succeeded to the chair of theoretical medicine at the University of Padua in 1712 and was to teach medicine there until his death in 1771.

Morgagni was promoted to the chair of anatomy after his first three years in Padua, following in the footsteps of many illustrious scholars. He brought out five more volumes of his Adversaria Anatomica during his early years in Padua.

Morgagni's Adversaria Anatomica helped establish his reputation
Morgagni's Adversaria Anatomica helped
establish his reputation
In 1761, when he was nearly 80, he brought out the work that was to make pathological anatomy into a science – De Sedibus et causis morborum per anotomem indagatis (Of the seats and cause of diseases investigated through anatomy). This work, which contained the records of 646 dissections, was later reprinted several times in its original Latin and translated into French, English and German.

Morgagni was the first anatomist to understand and to demonstrate the absolute necessity of basing diagnosis, prognosis and treatment on an exact and comprehensive knowledge of anatomical conditions. His precision, thoroughness and freedom from bias are modern scientific qualities and he was also a widely respected clinician who maintained an active practice. His treatise was to lead to steady progress in pathology and practical medicine.

Morgagni had married a noble lady from Forlì during his early years in Padua who bore him three sons and 12 daughters. He died at the age of 89 in Padua.

He is today regarded as the father of modern pathological anatomy as his works helped to make it into an exact science.

Forlì's Palazzo Poste e Telegrafi in Piazza Saffi
Forlì's Palazzo Poste e Telegrafi in Piazza Saffi
Travel tip:

Forlì, where Morgagni was born, is today a prosperous city with a beautiful main square, Piazza Saffi, named after Aurelio Saffi, a radical republican who was a prominent figure in the Risorgimento. The square is dominated by the monumental Palazzo Poste e Telegrafi, designed by Cesare Bazzani in 1932 to celebrate the Fascist regime. Benito Mussolini was born in nearby Predappio and blatantly favoured the area of his birth with imposing new buildings.


Palazzo del Bò in the centre of the city is the main building of the University of Padua
Palazzo del Bò in the centre of the city is the
main building of the University of Padua
Travel tip:

The University of Padua, where Morgagni taught for most of his life, was established in 1222 and is one of the oldest in the world, second in Italy only to the University of Bologna. The main university building, Palazzo del Bò in Via VIII Febbraio in the centre of Padua, used to house the medical faculty. You can take a guided tour to see the pulpit used by Galileo when he taught at the university between 1592 and 1610.


More reading:

Paolo Mascagni, the first physician to map the human lymphatic system

How Gabriele Falloppio made key discoveries about human reproduction

Hieronymus Fabricius, the father of embyology



9 October 2017

Gabriele Falloppio – anatomist and physician

Professor made key discoveries about human reproduction   


Gabriele Falloppio advanced knowledge of medicine significantly
Gabriele Falloppio advanced knowledge
of medicine significantly
Gabriele Falloppio, one of the most important physicians and anatomists of the 16th century, died on this day in 1562 in Padua.

Often known by his Latin name Fallopius, he lived only 39 years yet made his mark with a series of discoveries that expanded medical knowledge significantly.

He worked mainly on the anatomy of the head and the reproductive organs in both sexes and is best known for identifying the tubes that connect the ovaries to the uterus, which are known even today as Fallopian tubes.

He also discovered several major nerves of the head and face, and identified many of the components of the hearing and balance systems.

Falloppio described all of the findings of his research in a book published a year before he died, entitled Observationes anatomicae.

Educated initially in the classics, the death of his father plunged his family – noble but not wealthy – into financial difficulties, prompting him to pursue the security of a career in the church, becoming a priest in 1542. He served as a canon at the cathedral in his native Modena.

Falloppio retained an ambition to study medicine, however, and when the family’s finances had improved sufficiently he enrolled at the University of Ferrara, which at the time had one of the best medical schools in Europe.

A painting shows Falloppio (left) explaining one of his  discoveries to the Cardinal Duke of Ferrara and other clergy
A painting shows Falloppio (left) explaining one of his
discoveries to the Cardinal Duke of Ferrara and other clergy
He studied under Antonio Musa Brassavolo, who at the time was one of the most eminent physicians in Europe, with a list of illustrious clients that included King Henry VIII of England, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, the French king Francis I and a succession of popes.

After receiving his doctorate in medicine, he worked at various medical schools before becoming professor of anatomy at Ferrara in 1548.  A year later, he was invited to occupy the chair of anatomy at the University of Pisa.

Falloppio gained much of his knowledge from dissecting cadavars, not only those of adult humans but children and animals.  During his time at Pisa he was falsely accused of human vivisection, but despite the cloud this cast over him he was appointed to the prestigious chair of anatomy at the University of Padua, where he would remain until his death from tuberculosis.

The Flemish anatomist Andreas Vesalius was among his predecessors in the Padua chair.  It was the work of Vesalius that prompted a surge of interest in dissections and probably inspired Falloppio, who studied the observations of his predecessor in great detail and sought to build on them.

The title page of Falloppio's book of Anatomical Observations
 The title page of Falloppio's book
of Anatomical Observations
Despite his short working life, he left an enormous legacy of research.

He carried out investigations on the larynx and on respiration, and made important discoveries about bone growth. He described the ethmoid bone, the lacrimal duct, and his description of the middle and inner ear includes the first clear account of the round and oval windows, the cochlea, the semi-circular canals, and the scala vestibuli and tympani.

In the area of reproduction, as well as being the first to identify the Fallopian tubes, he proved the existence of the hymen in virgins, gave names to many features of the reproductive anatomy and disproved many popular notions about the mechanics of the reproductive process.

He can also be credited with inventing one of the earliest condoms, a sheath made from linen soaked in a medicinal chemical to be worn to protect the wearer from contracting syphilis.

Falloppio published two treatises on ulcers and tumors, a treatise on surgery, and a commentary on Hippocrates's book on wounds of the head.  He also researched the science of baths and thermal waters and of purgatives, and put forward important theories about the formation of fossils.

The anatomical theatre at the University of Padua
The anatomical theatre at the University of Padua
Travel tip:

The University of Padua includes nine museums, a botanical garden – best visited in the spring and summer – and the oldest surviving permanent anatomical theatre in Europe, built in around 1595 and which used to hold public dissections, which attracted scientists and artists in large numbers, keen to enhance their knowledge of the human body.

Statues line the canal in the elliptical Prato della Valle
Statues line the canal in the elliptical Prato della Valle
Travel tip:

The city of Padua, situated in the Veneto a 30-45 minute train ride from Venice and an hour and a half from the international airport at Treviso, is most famous for the Giotto frescoes at the Scrovegni Chapel and for the Basilica of St Anthony of Padua. Both attract thousands of visitors and the Scrovegni Chapel requires advance booking.  The city itself is an attractive place to explore, with a wealth of fine, historic buildings to discover along its pleasant arcaded streets, as well as the beautiful Prato della Valle, the 90,000-square metre elliptical square with an island in its centre surrounded by a canal bordered by 78 statues.








3 February 2016

Giuseppe Forlenza – eye surgeon


Napoleon recognised brilliance of eye specialist


This portrait of Giuseppe Forlenza by Jacques-Antoine Vallin is  housed in London's National Gallery
This portrait of Giuseppe Forlenza
by Jacques-Antoine Vallin is
housed in London's National Gallery
Giuseppe Forlenza, an important 18th century ophthalmologist and surgeon, was born on this day in 1757 in Picerno in the province of Potenza.

He became famous for performing successful cataract surgery and for his treatment of eye diseases.

Forlenza was born in the region of Basilicata, which at that time was part of the Kingdom of Naples. His father and two uncles were all surgeons.

He went to Naples and then on to France to study surgery. He spent two years gaining experience at St George’s Hospital in London and then returned to France where he concentrated on treating eye diseases.

Forlenza carried out eye surgery at a retirement home in Paris and performed many remarkable operations on soldiers returning from fighting in Egypt who were suffering from eye problems.

He was recognised as a leading eye surgeon by Napoleon, who in a royal decree assigned him to treat eye disease throughout France.

Forlenza eventually returned to Italy where he performed many free operations in Turin and Rome and he wrote what was considered at the time to be a forward thinking medical work about the treatment of eye disease.

Forlenza died in 1833 in Paris at the age of 76.

A tower still survives from Potenza's ancient castle
A surviving tower from an ancient
castle is an attraction in Potenza
Travel tip:

Potenza is the capital of the Basilicata region in southern Italy, built on high ground overlooking a valley in the Apennine mountains of Lucania. A tower from an old castle and three gates from the former city walls still remain and there are the ruins of a Roman villa to see.

Travel tip:

The University of Naples was founded in 1224 by the Emperor Frederick II. One of its most famous students was the theologian and philosopher Thomas Aquinas who went on to lecture there in the 13th century. A former college built in the 16th century in Via Paladino, in the area of Spaccanapoli, has been the main university building since 1777.


Home

2 February 2016

Antonio Maria Valsalva – anatomist

Work by brilliant professor benefits astronauts today


A line engraving of Antonio Maria Valsava by Romuald Ceracchi
A line engraving of Antonio Maria Valsalva
by Romuald Ceracchi
Antonio Maria Valsalva, a much respected anatomist, died on this day in 1723 in Bologna.

Valsalva’s research focused on the anatomy of the ear and his discoveries were so important that a piece of equipment used by astronauts today is named after him.

The Valsalva device in spacesuits allows astronauts to equalise the pressure in their ears by performing the Valsalva manoeuvre inside the suit without using their hands to block their nose. It has also been used for other purposes, such as to remove moisture from the face.

Valsalva was born in Imola in 1666. He received an education in humanities, mathematics and natural sciences before going on to study medicine and philosophy at Bologna University. He later became Professor of Anatomy at Bologna University.

His main interest was the middle and inner ear and it was Valsalva who coined the term Eustachian tube for a part within the ear. It was named after the 16th century anatomist Bartolomeo Eustachi who had described the tube in his written work.

The Valsalva manoeuvre, the forcible exhalation against a closed airway, often practised by people to equalise pressure between the ears when on an aeroplane, is still used by doctors today to help them with diagnosis in certain situations.

Valsalva’s most substantial contribution to the field of medicine was his detailed, illustrated work about the anatomy, physiology and pathology of the ear, published in 1704.

Valsalva died after a stroke in 1723 and was buried in the church of San Giovanni in Monte in Bologna.

Imola's well-preserved Rocca Sforzesca dates back to the 14th century, when control was disputed by powerful families
Imola's well-preserved Rocca Sforzesca dates back to the 14th
century, when control was disputed by powerful families
Travel tip:

Imola, where Antonio Valsalva was born, is a City in the province of Bologna in Emilia-Romagna. It dates back to Roman times and there are many fascinating historic buildings to see in the centre. The castle, the Rocca Sforzesca, is well preserved, and is nowadays the home of an internationally respected piano academy and the Cinema d’Este, which shows films in July and August. Imola is also home to the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari, a famous automobile racing circuit. 




Bologna's historic university, founded in 1088, is the oldest in the world
Bologna's historic university, founded in 1088, is the
oldest in the world
Travel tip:

Bologna University was founded in 1088 and is the oldest in the world. There is a portrait of Valsalva in the university’s oldest surviving building, the Archiginnasio, which is now a library. It is open Monday to Friday from 9am to 7pm, and on Saturdays from 9am to 2pm and is just a short walk from Piazza Maggiore and the Basilica di San Petronio in the centre of the city.



More reading:

The founding father of Italian psychiatry, Andrea Verga

The professor who turned pathology into a science

Samantha Cristoforetti, Italy's firsy female astronaut

Also on this day:

1891: The birth of Sardinia's first prime minister of Italy, Antonio Segni

1925: The birth of Olympic showjumper Raimondo D’Inzeo 


(Picture credits: Sforza Castle at Imola by Ruben Alexander via Creative Commons)

Home