Giovanni Maria Lancisi
Giovanni Maria Lancisi | |
---|---|
University of Rome | |
Known for | malaria cardiovascular diseases |
Scientific career | |
Fields | medicine anatomy |
Giovanni Maria Lancisi (26 October 1654 – 20 January 1720) was an Italian physician, epidemiologist and anatomist who made a correlation between the presence of mosquitoes and the prevalence of malaria. He was also known for his studies about cardiovascular diseases, an examination of the corpus callosum of the brain, and is remembered in the eponymous Lancisi's sign. He also studied rinderpest during an outbreak of the disease in Europe.
Biography
Giovanni Maria Lancisi (Latin name: Johannes Maria Lancisius) was born in Rome. His mother died shortly after his birth and he was raised by his aunt in
Lancisi studied
Early in the 18th century, Lancisi had protested the
However, Lancisi also erred, as he disputed the work of Giovanni Cosimo Bonomo (1663-1696), his contemporary, who had correctly identified the cause of scabies as a parasite.[5] Lancisi however, despite being progressive in other medical areas, continued to subscribe to the Galenic concept of scabies as a disease of the blood.[3][6] Because of Lancisi’s powerful position and, because previous scientists like Galileo Galilei had fallen into disgrace, Bonomo was silenced and his discovery was forgotten until the modern era.[7]
Studies on the brain and the soul
Lancisi described the corpus callosum as the "seat of the soul, which imagines, deliberates and judges."[8] His Dissertatio Physiognomica provided the supporting argument in 1713. He opposed alternative locations of the soul as hypothesized by others, such as the centrum ovale, by Andreas Vesalius, and the pineal gland, by René Descartes. He hypothesized that the longitudinal striae (later named in his honor as the "striae lancisi" or "nerves of Lancisi") were the conduit between the anterior location of the soul, and the posterior location of sensory organ functions, both within the corpus callosum.[9]
Notes
- ISBN 1-85070-477-5.
- S2CID 205536323.
- ^ PMID 33661047.
- ISBN 978-0-12-088385-1, retrieved 2021-05-18
- PMID 3307123.
- ^ Craig, Errol (Jan 2024). "Lancisi And Scabies". Gimbernat. 81: 11–21.
- ^ Ng, Kathryn (2002). "The affair of the itch: discovery of the etiology of scabies". In Whitelaw, W.A. (ed.). The Proceedings of the 11th Annual History of Medicine Days. University of Calgary. pp. 78–83.
- ^ Andrew P. Wickens, A History of the Brain: from Stone Age Surgery to Modern Neuroscience (2014)
- ^ Marco Catani, Stefano Sandrone, Brain Renaissance: From Vesalius to Modern Neuroscience (2015) p. 85.
References
- Gazzaniga, Valentina (2003). "Giovanni Maria Lancisi and urology in Rome in early modern age". J. Nephrol. 16 (6): 939–44. PMID 14736023.
- Mantovani, A; Zanetti R (1993). "Giovanni Maria Lancisi: De bovilla peste and stamping out". Historia medicinae veterinariae. 18 (4): 97–110. PMID 11639894.
- Fye, W B (1990). "Giovanni Maria Lancisi, 1654–1720". PMID 2208828.
- McDougall, J I; Michaels L (1972). "Cardiovascular causes of sudden death in "De Subitaneis Mortibus" by Giovanni Maria Lancisi. A translation from the original latin". PMID 4570450.
- Michaels, L (February 1972). "Pain of cardiovascular origin in the writings of Giovanni Maria Lancisi". PMID 5061134.
- "Giovanni Maria Lancisi (1654–1720)- Cardiologist, forensic physician, epidemiologist". Journal of the American Medical Association. 189 (5): 375–6. August 1964. PMID 14160512.
- Pazzini, A (April 1954). "[To Giovanni Maria Lancisi on three hundredth anniversary of his birth.]". Athena; Rassegna Mensile di Biologia, Clinica e Terapia. 20 (4): 177–80. PMID 13181790.
External links
- Preti, Cesare (2004). "LANCISI, Giovanni Maria". ISBN 978-8-81200032-6.
- (in Latin) Dissertatio historica de bovilla peste, ex Campaniae finibus anno 1713, Rome, 1715.
- Dissertatio historica de bovilla peste (1715)