FALLOPIUS (1547) AND FABRICIUS (1574)

GABRIEL FALLOPIUS

The most illustrious of 16th-century Italian anatomists, contributed greatly to early knowledge of the ear and genital organs.

He served as canon of the cathedral of Modena but turned to the study of medicine at the University of Ferrara where he became a teacher of anatomy.

He was appointed professor of surgery and anatomy at the University of Pisa (1548-51) and then succeeded Realdo Colombo to that chair at the University of Padua (1551-62) where Fallopius also served as professor of botany.

His exhaustive observations, made during dissection of human cadavers and outlined in his only major work Observationes anatomicae (1561), earned him the respect and admiration of his colleagues including the great Renaissance anatomist Andreas Vesalius.

Fallopius discovered the tubes connecting the ovaries to the uterus (not known as fallopian tubes) and several major nerves of the head and face. He described the semicircular canals of the inner ear (responsible for maintaining body equilibrium) and named the vagina, placenta, clitoris, palate and cochlea (the snail-shaped organ of hearing in the inner ear).

A friend and supporter of Vesalius he joined him in a vigorous assault on the principles of the classic Greek anatomist Galen, resulting in a shift of attitude essential to the development of Reinassance medicine.



HIERONYMUS FABRICIUS AB AQUAPENDENTE

Surgeon, an outstanding Renaissance anatomist, helped found modern embryology.

He spent most of his life at the University of Padua where he studied under the eminent anatomist Gabriel Fallopius.

As Fallopius successor to the chair of surgery and anatomy (1562-1613), Fabricius built a reputation that attracted students from all Europe.

The English anatomist William Harvey was his pupil.
In the De Venarum Ostiolis (1603; On the Valves of the Veins) Fabricius gave the first clear description of the semilunar valves of the veins which later provided Harvey with a crucial point in his famous argument for circulation of the blood.

Fabricius De Formato Foetu (1600; On the Formation of the Fetus), summarizing his investigations of the fetal development of many animals, including man, contained the first detailed description of the placenta and opened the field of comparative embryology.

He also gave the first full account of the larynx as a vocal organ and was first to demonstrate that the pupil of the eye changes its size.

When he gave up his chair of surgery in 1609 Fabricius maintained a large practice so that he might continue to develop improved surgical techniques.

His Opera Omnia Anatomica et Physiologica (Complete Anatomical and Physiological Works) was first published in 1625.