In a scientific article by Prof. Borghi the document of the historical event
16 January 2017 - It is well established that the microscope revolutionized clinical practice and biomedical research. But in the history of medicine, is it possible to trace the first recorded use of this tool? He talks about it Luca Borghi, professor of History of Medicine ofUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, in a article published in the scientific journal The Lancet.
It seems to be the autopsy report of Pope Innocent XII (1615-1700), preserved among the documents of the Vatican Apostolic Library, a decisive watershed in this field. He performed the exam Luca Tozzi (1638-1717), pupil of Marcello Malpighi and succeeded him in the office of papal physician. Malpighi can be considered the founder of themicroscopic anatomy and it was precisely in Rome that he trained young doctors and introduced the use of the microscope among his colleagues.
"However, Tozzi had the pioneering idea of using the microscope during the autopsy on the body of Innocent XII, who died on 27 September 1700", writes Borghi together with two other scholars.
How come? During the Pope's final days, doctors suspected he had bowel cancer. It was thanks to the microscopic examination that Tozzi confirmed the presence of first stage colon cancer.
But "beyond the cause of the illustrious patient's death - concludes the professor - the manuscript far anticipates the work of leading nineteenth-century pathologists such as Carl von Rokitansky and Rudolph Virchow, deserving greater recognition not only from historians, but also from doctors and researchers”.
