Marcello Malpighi

Research

Malpighi used the microscope for studies on skin, kidney, and for the first interspecies comparison of the liver. He greatly extended the science of embryology. The use of microscopes enabled him to describe the development of the chick in its egg, and discovered that insects (particularly, the silk worm) do not use lungs to breathe, but small holes in their skin called tracheae. Later he falsely concluded that plants had similar tubules. However, he observed that when a ringlike portion of bark was removed on a trunk a swelling of the tissues would occur above the ring. He correctly interpretated this as growth stimulated by food coming down from the leaves, and becoming dammed up above the ring. He was the first to see capillaries and discovered the link between arteries and veins that had eluded William Harvey.

Related Topics:
Microscope - Skin - Kidney - Liver - Embryology - Chick - Egg - Insect - Silk worm - Lung - Trachea - William Harvey

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Malpighi is regarded as the founder of microscopic anatomy and the first histologist. Many microscopic anatomical structures are named after him, including a skin layer (Malpighi layer) and two different Malpighian corpuscles in the kidneys and the spleen, as well as the Malpighian tubules in the excretory system of insects.

Related Topics:
Histologist - Malpighi layer - Malpighian corpuscle - Kidney - Spleen - Malpighian tubule

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He also studied chick embryo development with detailed drawings and discovered taste buds of human tongue. Some of his studies he made by vivisection. He also studied the anatomy of a brain, but his conclusion that brain is a gland has proved incorrect. He was also the first to discover and study human fingerprints.

Related Topics:
Chick - Embryo - Taste buds - Vivisection - Brain - Gland - Fingerprint

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Despite of his anatomical studies, he was also one of the rare contemporary scholars who studied plants; he published his findings in a book Anatomia Plantarum in 1671. It was the most exhaustive study of botany at the time. Royal Society published it the next year.

Related Topics:
Plants - 1671

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