MEDICINE  IN  XVII.  CENTURY

 

Hieronymus Fabricius ab Aquapendente 1537 – 1619

Italian anatomist and surgeon. His investigations into animal embryos led to the founding of embryology as a scientific discipline. He also contributed significant new information about the structure of veins and their valves, although he did not correctly identify their purpose.

Born in Aquapendente, near Orvieto, Italy, Fabricius attended the University of Padua, studying under Gabriel Falloppius, a famed Italian anatomist. An excellent teacher, Fabricius attracted students from around the world, including William Harvey.

The research Fabricius conducted at Padua also attracted much attention. In 1603 he published On the Valves of the Veins, the first detailed written description, accompanied by detailed illustrations, of the semi-lunar valves in veins. Despite his observations on these structures, he incorrectly determined their purpose as one of slowing down the flow of blood through the body to prevent it from collecting in the extremities. He believed that this ensured the even distribution of blood through the body; and that it also allowed the tissues to better absorb nutrients. His student, William Harvey, later discovered the true function of these valves: to prevent blood from flowing back into the ventricles of the heart.

From 1600 to 1612 Fabricius published several important works on the development of foetuses in animals. On the Formation of the Foetus was the first publication to describe the placenta in detail. In addition, it provided information on the late foetal stages in many different animals, as well as humans. Although his definitive text on chick embryology, On the Development of the Egg and the Chick, contained incorrect assumptions about fertilization and how the embryo is nourished, it influenced many scientists and established embryology as a legitimate scientific subject. Fabricius also published texts on the structure of the larynx, the eye, and the muscles. He retired from the University of Padua in 1613 and died six years later.

William Harvey 1578 – 1657

English doctor, who discovered the circulation of the blood and the role of the heart in propelling it, thus refuting the theories of Galen and laying the foundation for modern physiology.

Born on April 1, 1578, at Folkestone, Kent, Harvey received his B.A. from Gonville and Caius College, University of Cambridge, in 1597. He then went to Italy, where, at the University of Padua, he studied for five years under the celebrated anatomist Fabricius, who was already studying the valves of the veins. Having earned a medical degree (1602), Harvey returned to England and practised medicine in the London area. He was elected a fellow of the College of Physicians (1607) and appointed physician to St Bartholomew's Hospital. Recognized eventually as one of the most distinguished doctors in England, he became physician extraordinary to King James I, whom he attended in his last illness, and physician in ordinary to his son, Charles I.

From 1615 to 1656 Harvey served as Lumleian lecturer for the College of Physicians. As early as 1616 he discussed in his lectures the function of the heart and how it propelled the blood in a circular course. He arrived at his views not only by an elaborate series of dissections, but also by careful studies of the motion of the heart and blood in a wide range of living animals. These precise observations set a standard for future biological research.

Harvey formally presented his findings in 1628, when his Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus (Anatomical Essay on the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals)  was published. In this epoch-making work he explained the experimental method and gave an accurate account of the mechanism of the circulatory system. Because he had no microscope, the only major part of the process he omitted was the role played by the capillaries. He did, however, propose their existence, which was affirmed not long afterwards by the Italian anatomist Marcello Malpighi.

Harvey's De Motu Cordis subjected him to severe criticism by some contemporaries, but this was more than compensated for by the later widespread recognition of his contribution. He also undertook research in embryology, set forth in Exercitationes de Generatione Animalium (Essays on the Generation of Animals). The College of Physicians elected Harvey president in 1654, an honor he declined because of failing health. He died in London on June 3, 1657.

The century was also remarkable for the invention and development of the microscope. By using microscopes, a Dutch scientist, Antoni von Leeuwenhoek, discovered red blood cells, bacteria, and protozoa as well as describing the microscopic appearance of muscle. The greatest microscopist of the century, Marcello Malpighi, described the embryology of the chick and was the first to observe capillaries, although it was Leeuwenhoek who realized that capillaries completed Harvey's postulated circulation of the blood.

 

Marcello Malpighi  1628 – 1694

Italian physiologist, whose discoveries in microscopic anatomy upset ancient medical beliefs and set the course for modern physiology and histology.

Born in Crevalcore on March 10, 1628, Malpighi obtained a degree in medicine and philosophy at the University of Bologna in 1653. As Professor of Theoretical Medicine at the University of Pisa, he began his microscopic observations and became strongly critical of the assumptions held about physiology and medicine. In 1659 he returned to Bologna and in 1661 made his most important discovery, describing the network of pulmonary capillaries that connect the small veins to the small arteries, thus completing the chain of circulation postulated by the English physician William Harvey. Until that time the ancient belief had long prevailed that the blood was transformed into flesh on the periphery of the body.

 

Two philosophic schools of medicine arose in the century, both of which contributed to science but also slowed progress by their excessive rigidity. One, the iatrophysical school, regarded all physiological events as the rigid results of the laws of physics. The mathematician Rene Descartes subscribed to this school, but its greatest exponent was Italian scientist Giovanni Borelli. Many of his studies were valid, but he also advanced such notions as that digestion was a purely mechanical process of grinding and crushing. The iatrochemical school, founded by Flemish chemist Johannes Baptista von Helmont, began as a jumble of ill-defined notions. The idea of the importance of chemistry in medicine, however, took on significance when propounded by English physicist Thomas Willis (1621-75), who analyzed urine in detail and noted the presence of sugar in diabetic urine. Similarly, Dutch physician Regnier de Graaf (1641-73) collected pancreatic juice and recognized its importance in the digestion of food by chemical rather than mechanical means.

 

Along with the growth of medical science, an extraordinary amount of humbug was promulgated. Schools of therapeutics based on the "doctrines" of the Egyptian god Thoth and on Zoroastrian or Rosicrucian teachings were widely respected by royal courts. Because of the growing appreciation of the fact that correct medical therapy was based on reasons that could in time be found through research, it was easy for persons to develop false systems that had sufficient logic to give them a flavor of science and therefore of validity.

 

The great schools of medicine in the 17^th century were those of Leyden, Paris, and Montpellier. During this period the Royal Society of London, the Academie des Sciences in Paris, and the Collegium Naturae Curiosorum in Germany were founded and dedicated to the advancement of science. By means of these societies ideas were exchanged and journals published, thus spreading information throughout much of Europe.