Malpighian

   Marcello Malpighi (1628-1694), an Italian physician, anatomist, and physiologist, was a great scientist who is not well-known outside the field of medicine. Born at Crevalore, near Bologna, the eldest of eight children, he was orphaned at twenty-one, and most of the family responsibilities fell on his shoulders.

   Malpighi later decided to study medicine. In 1653, he received his medical degree from the University of Bologna, and within three years was named a professor. But Malpighi decided to move on and soon accepted a professorship at the University of Pisa, where, together with G. A. Borelli, he discovered the spiral character of heart muscles. When Malpighi retired from academic life, he was called to Rome as the personal physician of Pope Innocent XII.

   Malpighi also studied the circulation of blood, and he was one of the first people to use a microscope to study animal and vegetable structures. He was the first to discover that capillaries form the connecting links between arteries and veins, the first to make an anatomical study of the brain, and the first to indicate the nature of the papillae on the tongue. He was responsible for knowledge pertaining to the mucous layer of skin, now called the Malpighian layer, and the Malpighian capsules of the kidney and the spleen. He also worked on the anatomy of the silkworm. The tubeshaped gland in insects and related animals that secrete urine into the alimentary canal is called the Malipighian tube.

   Although an excellent draftsman, Malpighi was a poor writer. But he did leave in writing some studies that have further commemorated him as an outstanding scientist. Stedman's Concise Medical Dictionary describes Malpighi as the founder of microscopic anatomy.