Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 983

LAZZARO SPALLANZANI (1729-1799) De' fenomeni della circolazione osservata nel giro universale de' vasi. Società tipografica 1773 viii, 343 pp. 22.4 cm.

A brilliant investigator in experimental physiology and the natural sciences, Spallanzani was not a physician; nevertheless, his contributions to the medical sciences exerted a lasting influence on the practice of medicine. He ranks equally with Haller in giving impetus to new avenues of physiological investigation and was one of the foremost scientists of the eighteenth century. Spallanzani was sent to the Jesuit college at Reggio at an early age and later studied law and the natural sciences at Bologna. After taking holy orders, Spallanzani was professor at Reggio, Modena, and subsequently at Pavia, where he enriched the museum by his collections from journeys along the shores of the Mediterranean. He studied the respiration, digestion, the senses of bats, the electricity of the marine Torpedo, the breeding of eels, the regeneration of different appendages of amphibia, and the biology of reproduction in animals. In the present work, Spallanzani presented the results of his experiments on the circulation of the blood and the action of the heart. He showed that the impetus given the blood by the contraction of the heart was maintained throughout the entire arterial system down to the smallest capillary. As was true with most of his works, this one was later translated into a number of other languages.

Cited references: Cushing S342

Gift of John Martin, M.D.