Francesco Torti (30 November 1658 – 15 February 1741) was an Italian physician.

Biography

Torti was born in

Modena Modena (, ; ; ; ; ) 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 Italy. It has 184,739 inhabitants as of 2025. A town, and seat of an archbis ...

and studied at the

University of Bologna The University of Bologna (, abbreviated Unibo) is a Public university, public research university in Bologna, Italy. Teaching began around 1088, with the university becoming organised as guilds of students () by the late 12th century. It is the ...

, graduating in 1678. In 1670 he and

Bernardino Ramazzini Bernardino Ramazzini (; 4 October 1633 – 5 November 1714) was an Italian physician. Ramazzini, along with Francesco Torti, was an early proponent of the use of cinchona bark (from which quinine is derived) in the treatment of malaria. His most ...

headed the department of medicine in the newly created

University of Modena The University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (), located in Modena and Reggio Emilia, Emilia-Romagna, Italy, is one of the oldest universities in Europe, founded in 1175, with a population of 20,000 students. The medieval university disappeared b ...

. Under the patronage of the Duke of Modena, he instituted an amphitheater for anatomical observations. He was the first to systematically study the effect of

cinchona ''Cinchona'' (pronounced or ) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae containing at least 23 species of trees and shrubs. All are native to the Tropical Andes, tropical Andean forests of western South America. A few species are ...

in the treatment of

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 ...

. He prescribed a dosage that continued for a period of eight days beyond the febrile stage of malaria. As a physician, he was consulted by written correspondence by noblemen across Europe and a collection of 329 of his case studies were published into a two volume work in 2000. His major work was the ''Therapeutice Specialis ad Febres Quasdam Perniciosas'' (1712
online
. Torti was the first to demonstrate the effectiveness of

bark in the treatment of malaria. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1717. Although some sources consider him to have introduced the word "malaria", he never used the term in his writings. It was used mainly in folk medicine in Italy and appears even earlier in the writings of Florence Leonardo Bruni (1476). Apart from medical writings, Torti also wrote poetry. Although married twice, he had no children. His manuscripts are archived in the

Biblioteca Estense The Biblioteca Estense (), was the family library of the marquises and dukes of the House of Este. The exact date of the library's birth is still under speculation, however it is known for certain that the library was in use during the fourteenth ...

. He was buried in the church of Santa Maria della Pomposa, Modena and a square is named after him in Modena. A biography was written by his fellow Modenese, Muratori.

Published works

* * (Modena, 1790, octavo) * (Modena, 1715) * (Modena, 1819)

References

External links

*
Complete digital facsimile of ''Therapeutice Specialis ad Febres Periodicas Perniciosas'' (1751)
from the

John Carter Brown Library The John Carter Brown Library is an independently funded research library of history and the humanities on the campus of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. The library's rare book, manuscript, and map collections encompass a variety of ...

1658 births 1741 deaths 18th-century Italian physicians People from Modena {{Italy-med-bio-stub

Biography

Published works

See also

References

External links