Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Nicolò Massa

  • Lumbar puncture

    JMS Pearce Hull, England   Fig 1. Dominici Cotugno’s De Ischiade Nervosa, 1764. 1770. Access to cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in life as an aid to diagnosis proved impossible until lumbar puncture. Galen of Pergamon (AD 130–200) failed to recognize CSF; he described a vaporous, not aqueous, humor that he called περιττώματα (residues) in the cerebral ventricles.…

  • The revolution of Andreas Vesalius

    Fabio ZampieriAlberto ZanattaPadua, Italy Born in Brussels in 1514, Andreas Vesalius studied Latin, Greek, and Hebrew in Leuven, and medicine in Paris. Arriving in Padua, at that time “the most famous gymnasium in the world,” he graduated in medicine in 1537 and was professor of anatomy from 1538 to 1543.1 In Padua, Vesalius would have…