Giovanni Battista Morgagni, one of the greatest anatomists of the eighteenth century and the prince of anatomo-pathologists, was born on February 25, 1682, at Forli, an Italian town situated about forty miles southeast of Bologna. The death of his father when the boy was only seven years old made it necessary for his mother to assume entire control of his early education. She performed this duty so faithfully and with such excellent judgment that, by the time Giovanni had attained his fourteenth year, he was so thoroughly familiar with the literature of Italy, and also of European countries generally, that the Academy of Forli unhesitatingly accepted him as a member of that organization. Two years later Giovanni went to Bologna and began the study of medicine under the guidance of such distinguished teachers as Hyppolyte Albertini and Antonius Valsalva; and three years later (in 1701) he was given the degree of Doctor of Medicine.
Morgagni’s biographers say little or nothing about his personal traits of character and about the manner in which he spent the larger part of his time during the early years of his professional career. His published writings, however, make it perfectly clear that almost from the very first his chief interest was centred in the study of anatomy as revealed to him by dissections of the dead human body; and, as the years rolled past, he evidently grew more and more strongly interested in the changes which take place in the organs and tissues of the body as the result of accidental injuries and of disease. From these same writings one learns further that he was in the habit of writing down, with the most painstaking minuteness, all the various departures from the normal standard as fast as they revealed themselves to his critical vision. He left no opportunity for the occurrence of errors due to a defect in his memory.
In 1706 he published a treatise bearing the title “Adversaria Anatomica.” It was this work which first laid the foundation of his reputation. In 1716 he was given the Chair of Anatomy at the University of Padua, and he continued to hold this position up to the time of his death in 1771.
Relatively late in life—that is, in 1767—he published his treatise “De Sedibus et Causis Morborum” (on the seats and causes of different diseases). This work, says Rokitansky, stands for all time, notwithstanding its defects, as a monument in honor of its author, by reason of the great industry and perseverance which it displays, and because of its wealth of detail, orderliness of arrangement, acuteness of reasoning, and excellence in the choice of methods,—in short, because of its originality. Théophile Bonnet’s great work on the same subject (“Sepulchretum”) was published in 1700, but, like its successor, its usefulness to-day is limited, at least in large measure, to that of a huge museum of pathological specimens. Rokitansky, of Vienna, was in reality the first anatomist who appreciated at its full value the fact that these lifeless specimens furnish most useful lessons in the theory and practice of medicine.
Lazarus Spallanzani was born in 1729 at Scandiano, a small town in the northeastern corner of the Apennines, about fourteen miles from Modena, Italy. At the age of fifteen he began to study physics, mathematics and philosophy at the University of Bologna, under the guidance of his relative, Laura Bassi, one of the most distinguished members of the Faculty of the Bologna Institute of Science. At the same time he cultivated a knowledge of Greek, Latin and French, as well as of his native language. As his father was anxious to have him do so, he also studied jurisprudence for a certain length of time, but he abandoned this study when his father, who had been persuaded by Antonio Vallisnieri, Professor of Natural History at the University of Padua, that the lad was much better fitted to follow the career of a biologist than that of a jurist, gave his son full permission to adopt whatever line of studies best suited his tastes and inclination. Accordingly, from this time forward Spallanzani devoted himself with increased zest to the study of mathematics and the dead and living languages.
In 1754 the University of Reggio—a town which is only a few miles distant from Scandiano—elected him to the Chair of Logic, Mathematics and Greek; and this position he continued to hold with credit to himself during the following six years; and during this period he devoted all his leisure hours to the observation of Nature. In this way he was able to make a few discoveries concerning the animalcules that are found in infusions; and it was not long before these discoveries attracted the attention of those distinguished Swiss naturalists—von Haller, of Berne, and Bonnet, of Geneva.
In 1760 Spallanzani was invited to occupy a chair in the University of Modena, and he taught in that institution for a period of eight years. During his term of office at this institution he published two memoirs—one on the animal nature of microscopic animalculi, and a second on the changes effected in the shapes of stones by the action of running water.
In 1767, the Empress Maria Theresa decided to render the University of Pavia more effective as a scientific institute, and with this purpose in view she established certain new professorships, and among the number one on natural history. As the first incumbent of this new chair she called (in 1768) Spallanzani, who by this time had acquired a great reputation in the scientific world as a biologist. His extensive knowledge in a variety of departments was associated with a remarkable genius; his methods were simple and easily understood, and—to speak figuratively—he took his auditors by the hand and led them to a clear understanding of the truth, or to the point where they could appreciate that the truth was not far distant and was certainly attainable in the near future. He possessed the art of interpreting Nature by her own methods, and by this art he was able to render wonderfully clear all the subjects with which he dealt in his lectures. All those who heard him speak gave him credit for being at times positively eloquent.
Lack of space will not permit me to furnish more than a few details of the original investigations which he made at this period of his career. Although at first glance it may be thought that Spallanzani’s work had very little to do with the science of medicine, on closer examination it will be seen that a study of the vital processes in the lower forms of life (which was Spallanzani’s chief occupation) are largely the same as those which characterize the higher forms, and therefore—since great difficulties attend the study of the same processes in man—it is of the very greatest importance that the search for light on this subject should be conducted on the lower organisms, even on the minute organisms which are found in stagnant water. Spallanzani was therefore engaged, in a very direct manner, in laying the foundations of the true science of medicine. Von Haller, the great Swiss pioneer in biology, was fully aware of this fact when he dedicated the fourth volume of his “Elementa Physiologiae”