The work aims at analyzing the complex and restless figure of Michele Vincenzo Malacarne and his boundless historical-scientific production. He was an Italian anatomist and surgeon, who had been practicing medicine at the University of Turin since 1769. In 1775, he was appointed professor of anatomy in Acqui Terme, where he worked on the therapeutic effects of thermal water and tried to improve on them, eventually increasing the reputation of Savoy baths. In addition to his scientific studies on the central and peripheral nervous system (especially on the anatomy of the cerebellum), Malacarne devoted himself to the history of medicine as well as to literary and national history studies. He travelled a lot and worked hard in order to achieve elsewhere the gratitude and acknowledgement he couldn't achieve at home. In 1779, he went to the flourishing and renewed University of Pavia, driven by the Habsburg influence on medicine and clinical surgery, and in 1794, he moved to Padua, where he practiced medicine until his death. His extensive correspondence with contemporary scientists, his membership of reputable scientific institutions (the Italian "Accademia dei Quaranta", the "Società Agraria" etc.), his involvement in the debate on galvanism that, at the end of Eighteenth century, overwhelmed and divided the scientific community and in which he sided with Galvani and Spallanzani against Volta, and, above all, the at once Enlightenment and Baconian scientific rigor in putting your confidence in the sole observation, marked a vital turning point in his scientific production that would have changed the history of medical knowledge.
Il lavoro tenta di analizzare la complessa figura e la sconfinata produzione storico scientifica, dell'inquieto Michele Vincenzo Malacarne, anatomista e chirurgo italiano che operò dal 1769 presso l'Università di Torino e professore di anatomia, nel 1775, ad Acqui Terme, dove si occupò degli effetti terapeutici delle acque termali e si adoperò per apportarne miglioramenti che finirono per accrescere la fama delle terme sabaude. All'attività scientifica sul sistema nervoso centrale e periferico (in particolare sulla conformazione del cervelletto) gli interessi del Malacarne spaziarono sulla storia della medicina e su un'intensa attività letteraria e di studi sulla storia patria. Molto viaggiò e operò per provare a cercare altrove quella gratitudine e riconoscenza che gli mancavano in Patria; approdò, nel 1779, nella rigogliosa e rinnovata Università di Pavia, grazie all'impulso asburgico per quanto concerneva in particolare medicina e pratica chirurgica, per approdare, nel 1794, a Padova dove esercitò la professione fino alla morte. La vasta corrispondenza con personalità scientifiche dell'epoca, la presenza tra le fila dei soci in rinomate Istituzioni scientifiche (Accademia dei Quaranta, Società Agraria,...) , il coinvolgimento nella polemica sul galvanismo che investì e divise la comunità scientifica alla fine del Settecento, che lo vide schierarsi a favore di Galvani e Spallanzani contro Volta, ma soprattutto il rigore scientifico a un tempo illuminista e baconiano, nel porre fiducia nella sola osservazione, dette alla sua produzione scientifica quella svolta necessaria che avrebbe poi cambiato la storia del sapere medico.
Empirismo, tecniche di ricerca e 'pubblica felicità' in Vincenzo Malacarne (1744-1816)
Ghiglione G
2005
Abstract
The work aims at analyzing the complex and restless figure of Michele Vincenzo Malacarne and his boundless historical-scientific production. He was an Italian anatomist and surgeon, who had been practicing medicine at the University of Turin since 1769. In 1775, he was appointed professor of anatomy in Acqui Terme, where he worked on the therapeutic effects of thermal water and tried to improve on them, eventually increasing the reputation of Savoy baths. In addition to his scientific studies on the central and peripheral nervous system (especially on the anatomy of the cerebellum), Malacarne devoted himself to the history of medicine as well as to literary and national history studies. He travelled a lot and worked hard in order to achieve elsewhere the gratitude and acknowledgement he couldn't achieve at home. In 1779, he went to the flourishing and renewed University of Pavia, driven by the Habsburg influence on medicine and clinical surgery, and in 1794, he moved to Padua, where he practiced medicine until his death. His extensive correspondence with contemporary scientists, his membership of reputable scientific institutions (the Italian "Accademia dei Quaranta", the "Società Agraria" etc.), his involvement in the debate on galvanism that, at the end of Eighteenth century, overwhelmed and divided the scientific community and in which he sided with Galvani and Spallanzani against Volta, and, above all, the at once Enlightenment and Baconian scientific rigor in putting your confidence in the sole observation, marked a vital turning point in his scientific production that would have changed the history of medical knowledge.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
