Ettore Marchiafava (3 January 1847 – 22 October 1935) was an Italian physician,
pathologist
Pathology is the study of disease. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in the context of modern medical treatme ...
and
neurologist
Neurology (from , "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the nervous system, which comprises the brain, the ...
. He spent most of his career as professor of medicine at the University of Rome (now
Sapienza Università di Roma). His works on
malaria
Malaria is a Mosquito-borne disease, mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects vertebrates and ''Anopheles'' mosquitoes. Human malaria causes Signs and symptoms, symptoms that typically include fever, Fatigue (medical), fatigue, vomitin ...
laid down the foundation for modern
malariology. He and
Angelo Celli were the first to elucidate
living malarial parasites in human blood, and able to distinguish the
protozoan parasites responsible for tertian and benign malaria. In 1885 they gave the formal
scientific name
In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...
''
Plasmodium
''Plasmodium'' is a genus of unicellular eukaryotes that are obligate parasites of vertebrates and insects. The life cycles of ''Plasmodium'' species involve development in a Hematophagy, blood-feeding insect host (biology), host which then inj ...
'' for these parasites.
They also discovered
meningococcus
''Neisseria meningitidis'', often referred to as the meningococcus, is a Gram-negative bacterium that can cause meningitis and other forms of meningococcal disease such as meningococcemia, a life-threatening sepsis. The bacterium is referred to a ...
as the causative agent of
cerebral and
spinal meningitis
Meningitis is acute or chronic inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord, collectively called the meninges. The most common symptoms are fever, intense headache, vomiting and neck stiffness and occasionally ...
. Marchiafava was the first to describe
syphilitic cerebral arteritis and degeneration of brain in an
alcoholic
Alcoholism is the continued drinking of alcohol despite it causing problems. Some definitions require evidence of dependence and withdrawal. Problematic use of alcohol has been mentioned in the earliest historical records. The World Hea ...
patient, which is now eponymously named
Marchiafava's disease. He gave a complete description of a
genetic disease
A genetic disorder is a health problem caused by one or more abnormalities in the genome. It can be caused by a mutation in a single gene (monogenic) or multiple genes (polygenic) or by a chromosome abnormality. Although polygenic disorders are ...
of blood now known
Paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria or sometimes Strübing-Marchiafava-Micheli syndrome, in honour of the pioneer scientists. He was personal physician to
three successive popes and also to
House of Savoy
The House of Savoy (, ) is a royal house (formally a dynasty) of Franco-Italian origin that was established in 1003 in the historical region of Savoy, which was originally part of the Kingdom of Burgundy and now lies mostly within southeastern F ...
. In 1913 he was elected to
Senate of the Kingdom of Italy
The Senate of the Kingdom of Italy () was the upper house of the bicameral parliament of the Kingdom of Italy, officially created on 4 March 1848, acting as an evolution of the original Subalpine Senate. It was replaced on 1 January 1948 by the ...
. He founded the first Italian anti-tuberculosis sanatorium at Rome. He was elected member of the
Accademia dei Lincei
The (; literally the "Academy of the Lynx-Eyed"), anglicised as the Lincean Academy, is one of the oldest and most prestigious European scientific institutions, located at the Palazzo Corsini on the Via della Lungara in Rome, Italy. Founded in ...
, becoming its vice-president in 1933.
Biography
Ettore Marchiafava born in Rome to Francesco Marchiafava and Marianna Vercelli. He graduated in medicine and surgery from the University of Rome (
Sapienza Università di Roma) in 1869. He earned doctorate degree in 1872. He won gold medal from his medical course. He immediately worked as assistant to
Tommasi Crudeli at pathology department of the University of Rome. He was appointed associate professor in 1881, and became full Professor from 19 April 1885. In 1886, he succeeded Crudeli as chair of the department. In 1916 he succeeded Guido Baccelli as chair of medicine, and in 1917 he was given additional appointment of Professor of medicine. He retired on 30 July 1922 and continued as Professor Emeritus.
During his professional career Marchiava served in several important offices. He was Director of the Cabinet of Pathological Histology at the University of Rome in 1882, member of the Higher Council of Education during 1895–1899, extraordinary member of the Provincial Health Council of Rome, member of Provincial Health Council of Rome, Vice-chairman of the Central Committee of the
Italian Red Cross, Corresponding member of the
Accademia dei Lincei
The (; literally the "Academy of the Lynx-Eyed"), anglicised as the Lincean Academy, is one of the oldest and most prestigious European scientific institutions, located at the Palazzo Corsini on the Via della Lungara in Rome, Italy. Founded in ...
in 1899, and national member of the Accademia dei Lincei in 1908. He was elected vice-president of the Accademia dei Lincei of Rome between 13 July to 27 November 1933. He served as personal physician to three
pope
The pope is the bishop of Rome and the Head of the Church#Catholic Church, visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. He is also known as the supreme pontiff, Roman pontiff, or sovereign pontiff. From the 8th century until 1870, the po ...
s,
Leo XIII
Pope Leo XIII (; born Gioacchino Vincenzo Raffaele Luigi Pecci; 2March 181020July 1903) was head of the Catholic Church from 20 February 1878 until his death in July 1903. He had the fourth-longest reign of any pope, behind those of Peter the A ...
,
Pius X
Pope Pius X (; born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto; 2 June 1835 – 20 August 1914) was head of the Catholic Church from 4 August 1903 to his death in August 1914. Pius X is known for vigorously opposing Modernism in the Catholic Church, modern ...
and
Benedict XV. He was also official physician to the Royal
House of Savoy
The House of Savoy (, ) is a royal house (formally a dynasty) of Franco-Italian origin that was established in 1003 in the historical region of Savoy, which was originally part of the Kingdom of Burgundy and now lies mostly within southeastern F ...
. In 1913 he was elected senator in the Senate of the Kingdom of Italy.
Achievements
Marchiafava first developed his first research interest in pathology from
Robert Koch
Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch ( ; ; 11 December 1843 – 27 May 1910) was a German physician and microbiologist. As the discoverer of the specific causative agents of deadly infectious diseases including tuberculosis, cholera and anthrax, he i ...
, whom he met in Berlin during his doctoral course. He studied malaria intensively for eleven years, from 1880 to 1891. With
Angelo Celli, in 1880, he confirmed a new
protozoa
Protozoa (: protozoan or protozoon; alternative plural: protozoans) are a polyphyletic group of single-celled eukaryotes, either free-living or parasitic, that feed on organic matter such as other microorganisms or organic debris. Historically ...
n (then called ''
Oscillaria malariae'') discovered by
Alphonse Laveran, finding it in the blood of the many patients with malaria fever. They were the first to use proper staining (with
methylene blue
Methylthioninium chloride, commonly called methylene blue, is a salt used as a dye and as a medication. As a medication, it is mainly used to treat methemoglobinemia. It has previously been used for treating cyanide poisoning and urinary trac ...
) to identify malarial parasite as distinct blue-coloured pigments in the blood cells. They showed that the parasites lived inside blood cell, and that they divide by simple splitting (
fission). They were the first to recognize several the
stages of development of the malarial parasite in human blood. They called the new microorganism ''
Plasmodium
''Plasmodium'' is a genus of unicellular eukaryotes that are obligate parasites of vertebrates and insects. The life cycles of ''Plasmodium'' species involve development in a Hematophagy, blood-feeding insect host (biology), host which then inj ...
'' in 1885. Their works helped to differentiate different types of malaria as a result of infection with different species of ''Plasmodium''. With
Amico Bignami he published a classic monograph ''On Summer-Autumnal Fevers'' in 1892, which was translated into English in 1894. This was a major foundation in modern malariology. They reported the direct evidence of mosquito theory that mosquitoes transmit malaria.
Marchiafava was the author of ''Sulle febbri malariche estivo-autunnali'' (1892) and ''La infezione malarica'' (1902). In 1884, with Angel Celli, he first observed
Gram-negative
Gram-negative bacteria are bacteria that, unlike gram-positive bacteria, do not retain the crystal violet stain used in the Gram staining method of bacterial differentiation. Their defining characteristic is that their cell envelope consists ...
diplococci in the cerebrospinal fluid of a fatal case of
meningitis
Meningitis is acute or chronic inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord, collectively called the meninges. The most common symptoms are fever, intense headache, vomiting and neck stiffness and occasion ...
in 1884. This was the then-unnamed ''
Neisseria meningitidis
''Neisseria meningitidis'', often referred to as the meningococcus, is a Gram-negative bacterium that can cause meningitis and other forms of meningococcal disease such as meningococcemia, a life-threatening sepsis. The bacterium is referred to a ...
'' (meningococcus), the agent of bacterial meningitis, although this was not proven until 1887 when
Anton Weichselbaum isolated the bacterium from six cases of meningitis and established the isolates as a distinct species. Marchiafava described for the first time the histopathology of syphilitic cerebral arteritis. In 1897, he observed a callused body in the brain of an alcoholic patient, and, in 1903, with Amico Bignami, published a complete description of the insanity of alcoholics, one form of which is today known as
Marchiafava–Bignami disease. (The disease is now known in nonalcoholic but diabetic patients.) He was the first one to prove the importance of sclerosis of the coronary arteries in the pathogenesis of
myocardial infarction
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...
. He also worked on
nephropathy
Kidney disease, or renal disease, technically referred to as nephropathy, is damage to or disease of a kidney
In humans, the kidneys are two reddish-brown bean-shaped blood-filtering organ (anatomy), organs that are a multilobar, multipap ...
and described
streptococcal glomerulonephritis. In 1931, he described
Paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria in depth, and also a rare form of this disease Strübing-Marchiafava-Micheli Syndrome.
In 1925, Marchiafava organised the first international conference on malaria.
Awards and honours
* Knight of the Order of the Crown of Italy (5 June 1881)
* Officer of the Order of the Crown of Italy (11 January 1885)
* Knight of the Order of SS. Maurice and Lazarus (20 January 1889)
* Officer of the Order of SS. Maurice and Lazarus (27 January 1890)
* Commander of the Order of the Crown of Italy (30 December 1894)
* Elected honorary fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine
The Royal Society of Medicine (RSM) is a medical society based at 1 Wimpole Street, London, UK. It is a registered charity, with admission through membership. Its Chief Executive is Michele Acton.
History
The Royal Society of Medicine (R ...
(1905)
* Grand Officer of the Order of the Crown of Italy (29 December 1907)
* Knight of the Order of Civil Savoy (1916)
* Commander of the Order of SS. Maurice and Lazarus (19 October 1923)
* Grand Cordon of the Order of the Crown of Italy (13 November 1924)
* Grand Officer of the Order of SS. Maurice and Lazarus (2 July 1926)
* Manson Medal (1926)
References
Additional source
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External links
Italian Senate
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marchiafava, Ettore
Italian neurologists
Italian zoologists
Italian entomologists
1847 births
1935 deaths
Malariologists
Papal physicians
Sapienza University of Rome alumni
Academic staff of the Sapienza University of Rome
Manson medal winners
Italian tropical physicians
Recipients of the Order of the Crown (Italy)