Mechanism, Experiment, Disease Marcello Malpighi and

Seventeenth Century Anatomy

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 Mechanism, Experiment, Disease

Marcello Malpighi and Seventeenth-Century Anatomy

D O M E N I C O B E RTO LO N I M E L I

The Johns Hopkins University Press

Baltimore
 This book has been brought to publication with the assistance of endowment funds
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bertoloni Meli, Domenico.

Mechanism, experiment, disease : Marcello Malpighi and seventeenth-century anatomy /
Domenico Bertoloni Meli.
p. ; cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn-13: 978-0-8018-9903-4 (hardcover : alk. paper)
isbn-10: 0-8018-9903-6 (hardcover : alk. paper)
isbn-13: 978-0-8018-9904-1 (pbk. : alk. paper)
isbn-10: 0-8018-9904-4 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Malpighi, Marcello, 1628–1694. 2. Anatomists—Italy—Biography. 3. Anatomy—
History—17th century. 4. Microscopy—History—17th century. I. Title.
[dnlm: 1. Malpighi, Marcello, 1628–1694. 2. Anatomy, Comparative—history—Italy.
3. Embryology—history—Italy. 4. History, 17th Century—Italy. 5. Physiology,
Comparative—history—Italy. qs 11 gi8 b546m 2011]
qm16.m33b47 2011
611.0092⬘2—dc22 2010023458

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Per Ada e Vasili
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 contents

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 Challenge to Malpighi’s Research 309
11.3 Malpighi: The Medical Significance of the New Anatomy 311
11.4 Sbaraglia’s Empiricism and Methodological Concerns 321
11.5 Young Morgagni’s Covert Intervention 326

Chapter 12. Medical Consultations 331

12.1 Between Theory and Practice, Carnival and Lent 331
12.2 Publishing Malpighi’s Consultations 334
12.3 Structure and Contents of Malpighi’s Consultations 338
 x Contents

12.4 Curing with the Pen: Francesco Redi 344

12.5 A Broader Look at Medical Consultations: Vallisneri and Morgagni 349

Epilogue 355

List of Abbreviations 365

Notes 367
References 403
Index 427
 acknowledgments

My interest in the history of seventeenth-century anatomy and medicine began sev-

eral years ago, when research on Giovanni Alfonso Borelli’s wide-ranging activities led
me to investigate the anatomists and physicians active in his circle. I am grateful to the
Wellcome Trust for a fellowship at the Cambridge Unit for the History of Medicine
that enabled me to start work on my project. My interests in these topics persisted
through the years until the current form of this book crystallized in my mind during
a year at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. I am grateful to the IAS for the
opportunity to work in such a wonderful and stimulating environment and to all the
colleagues and friends who offered suggestions and criticisms during my stay, espe-
cially Mechthild Fend, Jonathan Israel, Sarah McPhee, Jeremy Popkin, and above all
Heinrich von Staden. I benefited from several discussions in the history of scientific
observation group at the Max-Planck-Institut in Berlin; I am grateful to all partici-
pants for their comments on my work on the color of blood and to Raine Daston
for her encouragement and support. I am also extremely grateful to the John Simon
Guggenheim Foundation for a fellowship that provided me with the time necessary
to bring the project to conclusion.
A number of friends and colleagues over the years offered advice and support
in many ways. I wish to thank Anne Mylott, who read a preliminary draft of the
entire manuscript and provided many criticisms and suggestions on smaller and larger
issues. I am grateful for advice on a number of topics from Marta Cavazza, Anto-
nio Clericuzio, Maria Conforti, Hal Cook, Silvia De Renzi, Paula Findlen, Michael
Friedman, Dan Garber, Kimberly Hart, Gideon Manning, Larry Principe, Sophie
Roux, and Nancy Siraisi. I wish to thank colleagues and current and former students
at Indiana University with whom I discussed matters relating to my project infor-
mally, in graduate seminars, and in reading groups, especially Colin Allen, Tawrin
Baker, Ann Carmichael, Martha Crouch, Karin Ekholm, Sandy Gliboff, Kevin Grau,
Nicole Howard, Mark Kaplan, Joel Klein, Bill Newman, Carl Pearson, Evan Ragland,
Jutta Schickore, and Rebecca Wilkin.
 xii Acknowledgments

I wish to express my gratitude for assistance from Maria Conforti at the Biblioteca
di Storia della Medicina at La Sapienza in Rome and the staffs of the Houghton Library
of Harvard University; the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland; the
New York Academy of Medicine, especially Arlene Shaner; the University Library and
the Biblioteca dell’Archiginnasio at Bologna; and the Interlibrary Loan Department
at the Wells Library, at Indiana University, Bloomington. A special thanks to the
Lilly Library at Indiana University, Bloomington, especially Breon Mitchell and Joel
Silver for their expert assistance and Zach Downey for his help with photographic
reproductions. Last but not least, I wish to thank Bob Brugger and the Johns Hopkins
University Press for their support and commitment to this project.
I claim sole responsibility for all remaining errors and omissions.

This book builds on and substantially expands a number of essays published in the
past dozen years: “The New Anatomy of Marcello Malpighi,” 17–60, and “The Post-
humous Dispute between Borelli and Malpighi,” 245–73, in Domenico Bertoloni
Meli, ed., Marcello Malpighi, Anatomist and Physician (Florence: Olschki, 1997). “The
Archive and Consulti of Marcello Malpighi,” in Michael Hunter, ed., Archives of
the Scientific Revolution (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1998), 109–20. “Francesco Redi
e Marcello Malpighi: ricerca anatomica e pratica medica,” in Walter Bernardi and
Luigi Guerrini, eds., Francesco Redi. Un protagonista della scienza moderna (Florence:
Olschki, 1999), 73–86. “Blood, Monsters, and Necessity in Malpighi’s De polypo cordis,”
MH 45 (2001), 511–22. “Mechanistic Pathology and Therapy in the Medical Assayer
of Marcello Malpighi,” MH 51 (2007), 165–80. “The Collaboration between Anato-
mists and Mathematicians in the Mid-Seventeenth Century with a Study of Images
as Experiments and Galileo’s Role in Steno’s Myology,” Early Science and Medicine 13
(2008), 665–709. “The Color of Blood: Between Sensory Experience and Epistemic
Significance,” forthcoming in Lorraine Daston and Elizabeth Lunbeck, eds., Histories
of Scientific Observation. “The Representation of Insects in the Seventeenth Century:
A Comparative Approach,” Annals of Science 67 (2010), 405–29.
Mechanism, Experiment, Disease
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 Introduction
Anatomy, Medicine, and the New Philosophy

1. Anatomical Research in the Second Half of the

Seventeenth Century
This volume examines how anatomical knowledge in the second half of the seven-
teenth century was gained and transmitted, as well as how these processes interacted
with the experimental and mechanical philosophies, natural history, and medical prac-
tice. In line with contemporary usage, by “anatomy” I mean the study of structures
as well as their actions and purpose, thus including what we today call physiology. I
am especially interested in the growing range of techniques and tools of investigation
adopted in the study of animals and plants, in visual representation, and in philo-
sophical perspectives about the mechanistic understanding of the body. Moreover, I
pay close attention to the mutual relationships among anatomical research, pathol-
ogy, and therapy. Marcello Malpighi was a key figure in all these developments and
therefore occupies a central position in this work.¹
The last three quarters of the seventeenth century witnessed the revival of classi-
cal techniques of investigation, such as vivisection, the striking refinement of others,
such as chymical assaying and vascular injections, and the emergence of entirely new
ones, such as microscopy. Moreover, the study of the lesions produced by disease in
dead bodies shed light on pathology and on the normal operations of the body as
well. These developments led to profound and at the same time problematic changes
in the understanding of the body and its diseases. The shifting genres of publication
are indicative in this regard: the earlier anatomical literature to the beginning of the
seventeenth century often consisted of treatises on the entire human body, such as
sixteenth-century classics by Andreas Vesalius and Realdo Colombo and the main
works at the turn of the century, Historia anatomica by André du Laurens, physician
to Henry IV, and Theatrum anatomicum, by the Basel professor Caspar Bauhin. By
contrast, a vast portion of the anatomical literature from the second half of the sev-
enteenth century appeared in short essays dealing with specific organs, vessels, and