Note 46 — NOTES.1

Marcello Malpighi (1628–1694) was a renowned Italian anatomist and physiologist. He held the position of lecturer on medicine at Bologna in 1656, a few months later became professor at Pisa, was made professor at Bologna in 1660, went from there to Messina, though he later returned to Bologna. In 1691 he became physician to Pope Innocent XII. Malpighi is often known as the founder of microscopic anatomy. He was the first to see the marvelous spectacle of the circulation of the blood on the surface of a frog’s lung. He discovered the vesicular structure of the human lung, the structure of the secreting glands, and the mucous character of the lower stratum of the epidermis. He was the first to undertake the finer anatomy of the brain, and he accurately described the distribution of grey matter, and of the fibre tracts in the cord. His works are: “De pulmonibus” (Bologna, 1661), “Epistolae anatomicae narc. Malpighi et Car. Fracassati” (Amsterdam, 1662), “De Viscerum Structura” (London, 1669), “Anatome Plantarum” (London, 1672), “De Structura Glandularum conglobatarum” (London, 1689).55