The career of Santorio Santorio (1561–1636) marked the beginning of modern medicine. Born in Capodistria, a territory of the Venetian Republic (now called Koper, a town on the coast of Slovenia), Santorio was not only a student, physician, and a professor of theoretical medicine at the University of Padua, but he also introduced measurements and mathematics into human experimentation. By means of a weigh scale, he conducted studies on more than ten thousand people (including Galileo Galilei) over a 30 year period. It was his habit to measure his daily body weight, along with the quantity of ingested food and drink, as well as the quantity of bodily discharge (urine and feces) so that he was able to calculate the amount of insensible perspiration which he then used as a dual indicator to characterize health and disease and to cure patients after knowing their physical parameters including their pulse and body temperatures. His main work was De Statica Medicina, a well received book which had more than 40 editions during the 17th and 18th centuries and which was translated into English, Italian, French and German. It was a slight volume, but it was praised by Boerhaave, von Haller and Lavoisier. It was this praise and recognition which granted to Santorio the definition of Galilean, by many historians of medicine including Salvatore De Renzi, Castiglioni, Pucinotti and Pazzini. Santorio embodied the modern physician-scientist. He used a vast number of people as the subjects of his experimental work and immediately transformed discoveries and new technologies into medical devices using the data originating in basic science. It is the case that the information reported in his book was quickly put to use to help patients. He also introduced self-experimentation in medicine, an important issue even nowadays. Although he was aware that the university took credit for his work, he respected the institution from which he obtained a salary for life even when he stopped the teaching there. He demonstrated his modernity: he was a pioneer in granting money for yearly scholarships to the University of Padua through his last will and testament.

SANTORIO SANTORIO (1561– 636) – THE PIONEER OF MODERN CLINICAL SCIENCE

CIRILLO, Massimo
2011-01-01

Abstract

The career of Santorio Santorio (1561–1636) marked the beginning of modern medicine. Born in Capodistria, a territory of the Venetian Republic (now called Koper, a town on the coast of Slovenia), Santorio was not only a student, physician, and a professor of theoretical medicine at the University of Padua, but he also introduced measurements and mathematics into human experimentation. By means of a weigh scale, he conducted studies on more than ten thousand people (including Galileo Galilei) over a 30 year period. It was his habit to measure his daily body weight, along with the quantity of ingested food and drink, as well as the quantity of bodily discharge (urine and feces) so that he was able to calculate the amount of insensible perspiration which he then used as a dual indicator to characterize health and disease and to cure patients after knowing their physical parameters including their pulse and body temperatures. His main work was De Statica Medicina, a well received book which had more than 40 editions during the 17th and 18th centuries and which was translated into English, Italian, French and German. It was a slight volume, but it was praised by Boerhaave, von Haller and Lavoisier. It was this praise and recognition which granted to Santorio the definition of Galilean, by many historians of medicine including Salvatore De Renzi, Castiglioni, Pucinotti and Pazzini. Santorio embodied the modern physician-scientist. He used a vast number of people as the subjects of his experimental work and immediately transformed discoveries and new technologies into medical devices using the data originating in basic science. It is the case that the information reported in his book was quickly put to use to help patients. He also introduced self-experimentation in medicine, an important issue even nowadays. Although he was aware that the university took credit for his work, he respected the institution from which he obtained a salary for life even when he stopped the teaching there. He demonstrated his modernity: he was a pioneer in granting money for yearly scholarships to the University of Padua through his last will and testament.
2011
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11386/3863278
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