Mechanism, Experiment, Disease: Marcello Malpighi and Seventeenth-Century Anatomy

Contents

c o n t e n t s Acknowledgments xi Introduction: Anatomy, Medicine, and the New Philosophy 1 1. Anatomical Research in the Second Half of the Seventeenth Century 1 2. Malpighi’s Role on the Anatomical Stage 4 3. Medical Locations: The Sites of Malpighi’s Work 6 4. Mechanism and Mechanics 12 5. Experiment and Collaboration 16 6. Disease and Anatomy 20 7. Structure and Organization 22 Part I. The Rise of Mechanistic and Microscopic Anatomy: Malpighi’s Formation and Association with Borelli 27 Chapter 1. The New Anatomy, the Lungs, and Respiration 31 1.1 Changing Anatomical Horizons 31 1.2 Malpighi’s Bologna Apprenticeship: Anatomical Venues and Vivisection 32 1.3 Malpighi’s Pisa Apprenticeship: Microscopy and the New Philosophy 40 1.4 Malpighi’s Epistolae on the Lungs 45 1.5 The Purpose of Respiration: Thruston, Lower, and Hooke 50 Chapter 2. Epidemic Fevers and the Challenge to Galenism 56 2.1 Galenic Traditions and New Medical Thinking 56 2.2 Borelli and the Sicilian Epidemics of 1647–48 58 2.3 Borelli, Malpighi, and the Pisa Epidemics of 1661 63 2.4 The 1665 Controversy between the Neoterics and the Galenists 65 2.5 Malpighi’s Risposta to Galenistarum triumphus 69 viii Contents Chapter 3. The Anatomy of the Brain and of the Sensory Organs 75 3.1 Atomism and the Anatomy of the Senses 75 3.2 Brain Research in the 1660s: Willis, Steno, and Malpighi 76 3.3 Malpighi’s Anatomical Findings on Taste and Touch 88 3.4 Fracassati’s Far-Reaching Investigations 93 3.5 Bellini and Rossetti: Atomistic Anatomy of Taste and Touch 97 Part II. Secretion and the Mechanical Organization of the Body: Glands as the Centerpiece of Malpighi’s Investigations 103 Chapter 4. The Glandular Structure of the Viscera 105 4.1 The Revival of Glands 105 4.2 Changing Perceptions on Glands: Glisson, Wharton, and Steno 106 4.3 Malpighi’s Treatise on the Liver 113 4.4 The Brain and the Cerebral Cortex 119 4.5 The Kidneys: Bellini and Malpighi 121 4.6 The Spleen and Its Problems 124 Chapter 5. Fat, Blood, and the Body’s Organization 130 5.1 The Necessity of Matter and the Animal’s Benefit 130 5.2 Descartes on Fat, Blood, and Nutrition 132 5.3 Malpighi on Fat and Its Philosophical Implications 134 5.4 Blood Transfusions 138 5.5 Malpighi on Heart Polyps and the Nature of Blood 142 Chapter 6. The Structure of Glands and the Problem of Secretion 150 6.1 Different Perspectives on Glands 150 6.2 Intestinal Glands and Their Implications 151 6.3 The Mode of Operation of Glands 158 6.4 Glands in the Theatre: Bellini, Sbaraglia, and Malpighi 160 6.5 Nuck’s New Taxonomy of Glands 165 Part III. Between Anatomy and Natural History: Malpighi and the Royal Society 171 Chapter 7. The Challenge of Insects 175 7.1 Changing Perceptions on Insects 175 7.2 Redi: Experiments and Generation 179 7.3 Malpighi: Historia and Anatomy 186 Contents ix 7.4 Swammerdam: Metamorphosis and Classification 194 7.5 Swammerdam and Malpighi: Microstructure and Iconography 201 Chapter 8. Generation and the Formation of the Chick in the Egg 208 8.1 Generation and Its Problems 208 8.2 Harvey: Epigenesis and the Role of the Faculties 210 8.3 The Organs of Generation and the Problem of Fecundation 215 8.4 Swammerdam and the Amsterdam Circle on Preformation 224 8.5 Malpighi and the Formation of the Chick in the Egg 227 Chapter 9. The Anatomy of Plants 234 9.1 Plants between Anatomy and Natural History 234 9.2 Malpighi’s Anatomy of Plants: Structure, Iconography, and Experiment 237 9.3 Trionfetti, Malpighi, Cestoni, and the Vegetation of Plants 254 9.4 Grew and Camerarius: Iconography, “Œconomy,” and Sexual Reproduction 262 Part IV. Anatomy, Pathology, and Therapy: Malpighi’s Posthumous Writings 271 Chapter 10. The Fortunes of Malpighi’s Mechanistic Anatomy 275 10.1 Mechanistic Anatomy and Malpighi’s Vita 275 10.2 Writing about the Self 276 10.3 Levels of Mechanical Explanation in Borelli and Malpighi 280 10.4 Paolo Mini and the Soul-Body Problem 289 10.5 Ruysch’s Challenge and Boerhaave 296 Chapter 11. From the New Anatomy to Pathology and Therapy 307 11.1 A Bologna Controversy and Its Wider Implications 307 11.2 Sbaraglia’s...