Carmela Bisaccia

Berengario da Carpi

Berengario da Carpi was magister of anatomy and surgery at the University of Bologna from 1502 to 1527. Eustachio and Falloppia defined him as ‘the restaurator of anatomy’. He was a great surgeon, anatomist and physician of illustrious patients including Lorenzo II dei Medici, Giovanni dalle Bande Nere, Galeazzo Pallavicini, Cardinal Colonna, and Alessandro Soderini. He had strong links to the intellectuals of his time (Forni, Bonamici, Manuzio, Pomponazzi) as well as with the Medici family. He was respected by the Popes Julius II, Leo X and Clement VII. His main contributions are the Isogogae Breves, De Fractura calvae sive cranei, and the illustrated Commentaria on the Anatomy of Mondino de Liucci, a textbook utilized for more than 200 years, which Berengario aimed to restore to its initial text. The Commentaria constitutes the material for the last part of this paper which concludes with a personal translation of some passages on ‘The kidney’, where the author gives poignant examples of experimental ingenuity.

The Pre-Vesalian Kidney: Gabriele Zerbi, 1445–1505

Gabriel Zerbi was born in Verona in 1445 and died in Dalmatia in 1505. He was professor of philosophy in Padua at the age of 22, and moved to Bologna where he became professor of medicine and philosophy. In Rome at the time of Sixtus V and Innocentius VIII, he was archiater and professor of medicine. He completed his academic career in Padua where he worked from 1494 to 1505 with a salary of 600 florins a month. A man of vast culture, a philosopher, physician and professor of medicine, he wrote many books: (1) Questiones Metaphysicae; (2) Gerentocomia; (3) De Cautelis Medicorum; (4) Liber anatomiae corporis humani et singulorum membrorum illius; (5) De anatomia infantiis et porci ex traditione Cophonis, and (6) Libellus de preservatione corporum a passione calculosa. His contribution to anatomy was superb. Through him the discipline became the basis of modern medicine. The core of this article deals with some passages of Zerbi’s chapters on the anatomy of the kidneys and bladder.

Maximum Time-to-Rescue After the 1908 Messina-Reggio Calabria Earthquake was 20 Days: Hints for Disaster Planning?

Introduction Maximum time-to-rescue has been studied accurately for many earthquakes in the years 1985-2004. No study is available for historical quakes. Hypothesis/Problem This study aimed to evaluate long-term survivors (from the fifth day after the quake) of the Messina-Reggio Calabria earthquake (1908; Italy), which is considered, historically, to be the worst seismic event in Europe. METHODS Accurate readings of 11 national newspapers from the fifth day after the quake looking for rescued persons and transferring, to an ad hoc form, all data relating to each rescued person. RESULTS The maximum time-to rescue was 20 days. There were 225 survivors, among them 51 children (22.6 %). For 23 out 225 rescued persons, there was evidence of availability of foods and drinkable fluids while under the rubble. CONCLUSION The maximum time-to-rescue under the debris following this historical earthquake far exceeds that of all other quakes that occurred in the years 1985-2004. The long survival under debris was probably due to the lack of an order to stop search and rescue. Recent strategies reducing the time for search and rescue carry the risk of missing survivors. De Santo NG , Bisaccia C , De Santo LS . Maximum time-to-rescue after the 1908 Messina-Reggio Calabria Earthquake was 20 days: hints for disaster planning? Prehosp Disaster Med. 2017;32(3):249-252.

Where philosophy meets clinical science

Nowadays, there is a renewed interest in bone changes in experimental and clinical nephrology. However, the need for understanding the peculiarity of bone can be traced back to the 5th century BC, when Empedocles of Acragas put forward a theory of a world made of air, water, fire, and earth governed by love and hate. By observing the various body tissues, he strove to demonstrate that they consisted of 4 elements assembled with different mathematical ratios (logos). Blood is considered the most perfect tissue, because the ratio between elements is one. Bone is a very unusual tissue because it is made of 2 parts of earth, 2 parts of water, and 4 parts of fire. This kind of reasoning could be considered the first cry in the birth of quantitative chemistry.