Gabriel Fallopius
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Gabriele Falloppio (also Gabrielle Falloppia) (1522/23 – 9 October 1562) was an Italian anatomist often known by his Latin name Fallopius. He was one of the most important anatomists and physicians of the sixteenth century, giving his name to the
Fallopian tube The fallopian tubes, also known as uterine tubes, oviducts or salpinges (singular salpinx), are paired tubes in the human female that stretch from the uterus to the ovaries. The fallopian tubes are part of the female reproductive system. In ot ...
.


Life

Falloppio grew up in
Modena Modena (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language#Dialects, Modenese, Mòdna ; ett, Mutna; la, Mutina) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern I ...
. His father died early but thanks to the support of affluent relatives he enjoyed are thorough humanist education in Modena, learning Latin and Greek and moving in the local circle of humanist scholars. He was for some years in the service of the Church, among others as a kind of warden at Modena's cathedral, but soon turned to medicine. In 1544, he performed a public anatomy in Modena. In 1545, at the latest, he began to study medicine at the University of Ferrara, at that time one of the best medical schools in Europe. It was there also that he much later, in 1552, when he was already professor in Padua, received his
medical doctorate Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a professional degree. T ...
under the guidance of
Antonio Musa Brasavola Antonio Musa Brassavola (variously spelled Brasavoli, Brasavola, or Brasavoli; 16 January 1500 – 1555) was an Italian physician and one of the most famous of his time. He studied under Niccolò Leoniceno and Giovanni Manardo. He was the friend a ...
. He taught on medicinal plants in Ferrara but was not professor of anatomy there, as has sometimes been claimed. He also was never a personal student of Andreas Vesalius as is often falsely maintained (he explicitly called himself a student of Vesalius in the sense only that he had read his works). In 1548, he took the chair of anatomy at the University of Pisa. In 1551, he was invited to occupy the chair of anatomy and surgery at the University of Padua and also lectured on medicinal plants or botany. In Padua, he shared his house over years with the German botanist
Melchior Wieland Melchior Wieland Latinized as Melchior Guilandinus with the Italian form Melchiorre Guilandino (c. 1520 – 25 December 1589) was a Prussian botanist and physician who worked in Padua. Wieland was born in Königsberg and was educated at the Unive ...
which gave rise to some suspicions about the nature of their relationship and got Falloppia involved in Wieland's vitriolic controversy with the irascible botanist Pietro Andrea
Mattioli Mattioli may mean: *Alessandro Mattioli (born 1998), Italian footballer *Carlo Mattioli (born 1954), Italian race walker * Denise Mattioli (born 1952), Brazilian volleyball player * Ercole Antonio Mattioli (1640–1694), Italian minister * Gaspare ...
. Falloppia was a very popular teacher and had numerous students. He also ran an extensive medical and surgical practice and took his students with him so they could learn from him. He died in Padua in October 1562, not even 40 years old. His plans for a major illustrated anatomical textbook were thus never realized.


Contributions

Falloppio published only one major work during his lifetime, the ''Observationes anatomicae'', which first came out in 1561. Here he presented his numerous new anatomical findings, correcting and expanding on the works of Galen and Vesalius. Some of his findings referred to the head and the brain. He added much to what was known before about the internal ear and described in detail the tympanum and its relations to the osseous ring in which it is situated. He also described minutely the circular and oval windows (fenestræ) and their communication with the
vestibule Vestibule or Vestibulum can have the following meanings, each primarily based upon a common origin, from early 17th century French, derived from Latin ''vestibulum, -i n.'' "entrance court". Anatomy In general, vestibule is a small space or cavity ...
and cochlea. He was the first to point out the connection between the mastoid cells and the middle ear. His description of the lacrimal ducts in the
eye Eyes are organs of the visual system. They provide living organisms with vision, the ability to receive and process visual detail, as well as enabling several photo response functions that are independent of vision. Eyes detect light and conv ...
was a marked advance on those of his predecessors and he also gave a detailed account of the ethmoid bone and its cells in the nose. The aquaeductus Fallopii, the canal through which the facial nerve passes after leaving the
auditory nerve The cochlear nerve (also auditory nerve or acoustic nerve) is one of two parts of the vestibulocochlear nerve, a cranial nerve present in amniotes, the other part being the vestibular nerve. The cochlear nerve carries auditory sensory information ...
, is also named after him. He also described the Fallopian hiatus, an opening in the anterosuperior part of the petrosal bone. His contributions to the anatomy of the bones and
muscle Skeletal muscles (commonly referred to as muscles) are organs of the vertebrate muscular system and typically are attached by tendons to bones of a skeleton. The muscle cells of skeletal muscles are much longer than in the other types of muscl ...
s were very valuable as well. He discovered among other the muscle that lifts the upper eyelid. He studied the
reproductive organ A sex organ (or reproductive organ) is any part of an animal or plant that is involved in sexual reproduction. The reproductive organs together constitute the reproductive system. In animals, the testis in the male, and the ovary in the female, a ...
s in both sexes, and gave the first precise description of the uterine tube, which leads from the
ovary The ovary is an organ in the female reproductive system that produces an ovum. When released, this travels down the fallopian tube into the uterus, where it may become fertilized by a sperm. There is an ovary () found on each side of the body. ...
to the uterus and bears his name to this day. He was the first to describe the ileocecal valve, which prevents a reflux of fecal matter from the colon to the small intestines, and demonstrated its function to his students. He also was the first to identify the vessels in the abdomine which were later called lacteals because of their milky appearance after meals. His contributions to practical medicine were also important. He was the first to use an aural speculum for the diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the ear, and his writings on surgical subjects are still of interest. After his death, some of his students published their lectures, in particular, on ulcers, tumors, medical cosmetics, and other surgical topics and on botany and mineral waters. In his lectures, Falloppio also described, around 1555, a linen sheath that previously had been soaked in medicinal substances and then dried and some authors have praised him as the inventor of
condom A condom is a sheath-shaped barrier device used during sexual intercourse to reduce the probability of pregnancy or a sexually transmitted infection (STI). There are both male and female condoms. With proper use—and use at every act of in ...
. The sheath was not to be used during intercourse, however. A man who had intercourse with a woman he suspected of being infected with the French disease or
syphilis Syphilis () is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium ''Treponema pallidum'' subspecies ''pallidum''. The signs and symptoms of syphilis vary depending in which of the four stages it presents (primary, secondary, latent, an ...
was to put the sheath over the glans penis after intercourse and leave it there for several hours to destroy infectious matter that might have entered the skin. Some authors have taken Falloppio's claim seriously - which is clearly phantastical - that he tested this sheath on a thousand or more men. Falloppio also lectured extensively on mineral waters and their medicinal qualities and presented the results of his chemical analysis of the waters from various springs by means of distilliation. He argued against Fracastor's theory of fossils, as described as follows in
Charles Lyell Sir Charles Lyell, 1st Baronet, (14 November 1797 – 22 February 1875) was a Scottish geologist who demonstrated the power of known natural causes in explaining the earth's history. He is best known as the author of ''Principles of Geolo ...
's '' Principles of Geology'':
Falloppio of Padua conceived that petrified shells had been generated by fermentation in the spots where they were found, or that they had in some cases acquired their form from 'the tumultuous movements of terrestrial exhalations.' Although a celebrated professor of anatomy, he taught that certain tusks of elephants dug up in his time at Puglia were mere earthy concretions, and, consistently with these principles, he even went so far as to consider it not improbable, that the vases of Monte Testaceo at Rome were natural impressions stamped in the soil.


Legacy

Various anatomical structures were described by Falloppio, including
Fallopian tube The fallopian tubes, also known as uterine tubes, oviducts or salpinges (singular salpinx), are paired tubes in the human female that stretch from the uterus to the ovaries. The fallopian tubes are part of the female reproductive system. In ot ...
, Fallopian Canal, and Fallopian ligament. Several - quite different - portraits which claim to represent Falloppia have survived but there is no conclusive evidence that any of them is authentic.


Works


''Omnia, quæ adhuc extant opera''
(1584) (mostly a collection of student notes on Falloppio's lectures) * Falloppio, Gabriele. 1562. ''Observationes anatomicae.'' Venetiis: Apud Marcum Antonium Vlmum. (first published in 1561) * ''Kunstbuch Des hocherfarnen und weytberhümpten Herrn Gabrielis Fallopij, der Artzney Doctorn von mancherley nutzlichen Künsten . Sampt einem andern büchlin / durch Christophorum Landrinum außgangen''. Manger, Augspurg 157
Digital edition
by the
University and State Library Düsseldorf The University and State Library Düsseldorf (german: Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Düsseldorf, abbreviated ULB Düsseldorf) is a central service institution of Heinrich Heine University. Along with Bonn and Münster, it is also one of th ...
(spurious, wrongly attributed to Falloppio) * ''Gabrielis Fallopii Wunderlicher menschlichem Leben gewisser und sehr nutzlicher Secreten drey Bücher : vom Authore selbst in Ttalienischer Sprach publicirt, jetzund aber Teutscher Nation zu gutem in unser Muttersprach ubersetzet'' . Iennis / N. Hoffmann, Franckfurt am Mayn 161
Digital edition
by the
University and State Library Düsseldorf The University and State Library Düsseldorf (german: Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Düsseldorf, abbreviated ULB Düsseldorf) is a central service institution of Heinrich Heine University. Along with Bonn and Münster, it is also one of th ...
(spurious, wrongly attributed to Falloppio)


See also

* List of Roman Catholic scientist-clerics


References

*


External links

* * http://www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/2288.html * {{DEFAULTSORT:Falloppio, Gabriele 1523 births 1562 deaths 16th-century Latin-language writers History of anatomy Italian anatomists Italian Roman Catholics 16th-century Italian physicians People from Modena University of Padua faculty University of Ferrara alumni Catholic clergy scientists University of Pisa faculty