Giovanni B. Morgagni (1682-1772) was the great founder of pathological anatomy. He was a pupil of Valsalva. His famous book on pathological anatomy was not published until he was in his 79th year. He was the author of the maxim that “observations should be weighed, not counted.” The researches in morbid anatomy carried out by Morgagni formed an epoch in the history of modern medicine, which may indeed be said to rest on the two methods of Sydenham and Morgagni. The work of the Italian anatomist was complementary to that of the English Hippocrates, who neglected anatomy. Morgagni and the “Encyclopædic Haller,” whom we are next to consider, were two of the brightest medical lights of the century.
Albert von Haller (1708-1777), surnamed “the Great,” was a Swiss physician of Berne, who was not only a distinguished scientist, but a man of letters and a famous poet. He studied comparative anatomy at Tübingen; in 1725 he removed to Leyden, which at that time was the first medical school in Europe. He visited England in 1727, and made the acquaintance of Sir Hans Sloane, Cheselden, Dr. James Douglas, and other eminent persons. Leaving London, he went to Paris, but having been detected by the police in dissecting in his lodgings, he had to leave France, and he went to Basle to continue his investigations in anatomy; there he studied mathematics under John Bernoulli, and, having imbibed a taste for botany, studied the flora of Switzerland, on which he afterwards published a work. In 1729 he returned to Berne and lectured on anatomy; invited in 1726 to accept the professorship of anatomy, surgery, and botany in the newly founded University of Göttingen, he removed to that city, and by his influence a botanical garden, an anatomical theatre, a school of surgery and midwifery were established there. In 1747 he published his most valuable work, the Primæ Lineæ Physiologiæ which was used as a text-book in medical schools.
Van Swieten (1700-1772), the pupil of Boerhaave, established the first clinical institution in Germany. He was with Sanchez the first to use corrosive sublimate in medicine. To his exertions it was due that the teaching of medicine was greatly improved in Austria.
J. F. Meckel (1724-1774) was an anatomist whose researches on the nerves, blood-vessels, glands, etc., have greatly contributed to our knowledge of their physiological functions.
J. C. Peyer (1653-1712) and J. C. Bruner (1653-1727) discovered the glands in the intestines which are known to this day by their names.
A. Pacchioni (1665-1726) described the glands we call in his honour “Pacchionian.” W. Cowper (1666-1709) discovered those which bear his name. M. Naboth (1675-1721) described the structures we call ovula Nabothi. H. Meibom (1638-1700) discovered the glands of the eyelids named after him.
Walter Charlton, M.D. (1619-1707), anatomist, a voluminous writer, was to some extent a follower of Van Helmont.
Thomas Fuller, M.D. (died 1734), published several pharmacopœias and an account of eruptive fevers, with several other works.
Nehemiah Grew, M.D. (born about 1641), wrote The Anatomy of Plants, with an Idea of a Philosophical History of Plants, which Sprengel calls opus absolutum et immortale. Hallam says,[1018] “no man, perhaps, who created a science has carried it further than Grew; few discoveries of great importance have been made in the mere anatomy of plants since his time.” His great discovery was the sexual system of plants; “that the sexual system is universal in the vegetable kingdom, and that the dust of the antheræ is endowed with an impregnating power.”[1019]
He was the first to obtain sulphate of magnesia from the Epsom waters, and to investigate its properties. His treatise on Epsom salts was published in 1697.