Gerolamo Cuneo. Scritti di biochimica 1885-1923

Two years after the publication of Gerolamo Cuneo. Sull’epilessia. Scritti 1909-1928 (Biorci, 2022) by the publisher Città del Silenzio, this work proposes the integration and completion of the recovery of the entire scientific production of the Ligurian scholar. The articles published by Cuneo in this new collection outline the premises and theoretical approach upon which subsequent research on the diagnosis and treatment of certain neurological diseases will be based. This work presents the scholar’s early articles, published from 1885 onwards, in which the research initially focuses on laboratory analyses of a purely chemical and biochemical nature, progressing in subsequent years to research aimed at treating certain “morbid” conditions afflicting the patients of the Genoa Quarto Asylum. The evolutionary process of Cuneo’s thought and work will lead to the formulation of a different clinical perspective on neurological diseases, including serious ones such as depression and epilepsy. According to the scholar, indeed, such diseases can be caused by the consequences of a biochemical imbalance in the body, often due to factors related to metabolism.