Francisco Salva Campillo (

Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...

: Francesc Salvà i Campillo, July 12, 1751 – February 13, 1828) was a Spanish

prominent late-Enlightenment period scientist known for working as a physician, physicist, meteorologist.

Early life and education

Francisco Salva Campillo was born in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the no ...

, Spain, on July 12, 1751. He was the son of Dr. Jerome Salvà Pontich, a staff physician at Barcelona General Hospital and Eulalia Campillo, his mother came from a wealthy family that worked in the pharmacy industry. During his adolescence, his extraordinary abilities attracted the attention of the

Bishop of Barcelona The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Barcelona is a Latin rite Catholic metropolitan archbishopric in northeastern Spain's Catalonia region. The cathedral archiepiscopal see is a Minor basilica: Catedral Basílica Metropolitana de la Santa Creu i ...

, Josep Climent, who advised his parents to let him study medicine in Valencia. He studied at the

University of Valencia The University of Valencia ( ca-valencia, Universitat de València ; also known as UV) is a public research university located in the city of Valencia, Spain. It is one of the oldest surviving universities in Spain, and the oldest in the Vale ...

, where he completed his course in three years instead of the usual four. In 1771, he successfully passed the B.Phil. degree in Medicine from the University of Huesca, Spain. He later earned his doctorate in medicine at the

University of Toulouse The University of Toulouse (french: Université de Toulouse) was a university in the French city of Toulouse that was established by papal bull in 1229, making it one of the earliest universities to emerge in Europe. Suppressed during the Frenc ...

Medical career

He started a medical school in Barcelona in an effort to train more doctors and took a special interest in

vaccination Vaccination is the administration of a vaccine to help the immune system develop immunity from a disease. Vaccines contain a microorganism or virus in a weakened, live or killed state, or proteins or toxins from the organism. In stimulat ...

, particularly against the disease of

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...

. He received several awards from the

Paris Society of Medicine The Paris Society of Medicine () is a medical organization based in Paris, France. Its predecessor, the Société Royale de Médecine, was founded in 1730, and the society's current incarnation was founded in 1878. Historical background The s ...

. In 1773, he became, along with Vincent Mitjavila, one of the founding teachers of the

Academy of Medical Practice An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosop ...

, which is now part of the University of Barcelona (Universitat de Barcelona), Faculty of Medicine. This school was founded in an attempt to unite the two disciplines of clinical and non-clinical studies into a ‘united faculty'.

Telegraphy

In 1795, Dr. Salva presented at the (Spanish: Real Academia de Ciencias y Artes de Barcelona) his first report devoted to "Electricity Applied to Telegraphy." Salva demonstrated the basis of electric

telegraphy Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...

, anticipating the wireless telegraph and undersea cables. The presentation of Salva attracted the attention of government and he received a formal invitation to demonstrate his telegraphic skills before the Royal Family in

Aranjuez Aranjuez () is a city and municipality of Spain, part of the Community of Madrid. Located in the southern end of the region, the main urban nucleus lies on the left bank of Tagus, a bit upstream the discharge of the Jarama. , the municipality h ...

Legacy

Salva died on February 13, 1828. He left behind a massive library composed of more than five hundred thousand volumes on medical topics. Along with these works, he bequeathed to the

Royal Academy of Medicine of Barcelona Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, Iowa, ...

a sum of four thousand pounds and in accordance with his will, his heart is preserved in an urn, with his books at the same location. Artist

Paul DeMarinis Paul DeMarinis (1948) is an American visual and sound artist, specializing in electronic music composer, sound, performance, and computer-based artist. Since the 1970s he has been active in creating digital sound sculptures, one of the early inn ...

was inspired by Salva for his work ''The Messenger'' (1998–2006), which examines the myths of electricity in communication.

References

External links

ieee.org

{{DEFAULTSORT:Campillo, Francisco Salva Physicians from Catalonia Physicists from Catalonia Catalan Meteorologists 1751 births 1828 deaths University of Toulouse alumni