Official journal of the International Society Revue officielle de la ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Physiology at the University of Turin, Vesalius, VI, 2,114-119, 2000The characteristics of the ruling class were ina way the characteristics of culture in Torino :progressive enough to press the Governmenttowards liberal reforms, the world of culture hadnot yet absorbed the new scientific spirit which inFrance, in England and later in Germany had itsroots in positivistic philosophy.Positivistic philosophy, however, was notunknown in italy. Here it had its main representativein Roberto Ardigo (1828-1920), a former priest, whodevoted himself to the scientific renewal ofpsychology. Italian positivism had quite differentcharacteristics compared with French positivism: inFrance it was popular amongst the scientificcommunity and the ruling class, whereas in Italy itwas a minority trend. In Torino, just a few yearsbefore the unification of Italy, a new wind blew withthe arrival from Naples of some Hegelian «eggheads»who, in their opposition to the Bourbonicregime had elaborated innovative political and culturalways ofthinking. BertrandoSpaventa, SalvatoreTommasi and Francesco De Sanctis contributed tothe updating of culture and, indirectly, of science inthe rather conservative, educated upper classes ofTorino. In particular De Sanctis, who becameMinister of Education after the unification of Italy,was the man who invited the Dutch scientist JakopMoleschott from Zurich to teach Physiology at theUniversity of Torino. The arrival of Moleschott inTorino represented a real turning point in the field ofphysiological research in this university.The different political, cultural and philosophicalbackground of France and Italy involved a differencealso in the advancement of biological sciences. InFrance, research in Physiology was stimulated bypositivism, in spite of some curious extremistaspects of this philosophical trend, such as thereligion of Humanity of Auguste Comte. In Italy itwas still in a sort of pre-scientific stage.For a better understanding of the «birth» ofmodem physiology in Europe a number of factorsmust be considered. While the term «physiology»was at first a name given to any attemps to explainvital and behavioural processes in a materialisticway, such attempts soon showed the strictdependence of the new science on anatomy.Anatomy, however, could not supply enough informationto explain the phenomena occurring in livingorganisms. The Elementa physiologiae corporishumani, published by Albrecht von Haller between1757 and 1766 was an example of the limits of thedependence of physiology on anatomy. It was clearthat physiology had to look for its roots elsewhere.Thusthe attention of physiologists turned to chemistryand physics. The separation of physiology fromanatomy, i.e. of function from structure, played aremarkable role in the success of what becameknown as vitalism. A good exemple of vitalism is tobe found in a book published by Xavier Bichat in1800 with the meaningful title of Recherches physiologiquessur la vie et la mort. However vitalismwas not always an impediment to research if itencouraged the activity and the achievements ofmen like Bichat and Francois Magendie, who wasat the same time both vitalist and upholder of thenecessity of experimental investigations. In oppositionto vitalism, which asserted the existence of avital force at the origin of all vital processes,mechanicalism considered these processes as theresult of two components only : matter andmovement. In France mechanicalism in sciencewas obviously strictly combined with positivism inphilosophy.In Germany the situation was rather different,because of the heritage of the movement ofNaturphilosophie. This movement, thoughproducing interesting results in different fields ofculture and literature, was the source of someprejudice which caused a delay in the revival ofscience. In opposition to Naturphilosophie, thenew ideas raised by positivism developed into areal philosophical materialism in the thinking ofscientist such as Karl Vogt, Ludwig Buchner andJakop Moleschott. It is important to remember,however, that in Germany vitalism was also astimulus for a number of scientists: the names andthe results of Johannes Muller and Justus Liebigare remarkable examples of how, in the presence115
Physiology at the University of Turin, Vesalius, VI, 2,114-119, 2000of debate, «conservative» ideas could also be aspur for important scientific investigations...During thefirst half of the XlXcentury in the smallstates which were later unified as the Kingdom ofItaly, there was nothing comparable with the scientificdebate occurring in France and in Germany. Ifsome achievements were obtained in physics andin natural sciences by individualssuch as AlessandroVolta or Lazzaro Spallanzani, they were dated backto the XVIII century and had little, if anything, to dowith medical science. Thus when in 1861 FrancescoDe Sanctis, Ministre of Education of the new unifiedstate, invited Jakop Moleschott to teach physiologyin Turin, at that time the capital city, fresh air blewthrough the Medical Faculty of the University. Theactual process of unification was a powerful stimulusfor the advancement of culture and science inTurin, where it brought brilliant intellectuals from thesouth of Italy with new ideas for the improvement ofthe higher learning.A brief biography of Moleschott gives a goodaccount of the change (Losano 1994). JakopMolescott was born in Bois-le-Duc (Holland) in1922. He attended the University of Heidelberg(Baden) where he received his medical degree in1845. After his graduation he returned to Hollandwhere he worked as a general practioner for acouple of years. Then he left Holland again whenhe was appointed «privat dozent» in physiologyat Heidelberg. A privat dozent was an expertauthorized to teach in a university without salary,paid only by the students who choose to attendhis lectures instead of those of the official professorof the same subject. The official professor wasthe «professor publicus ordinarius», i.e. theprofessor who really represented the university.At the end of the courses the students wereexamined by an external board, so there was acompetition between the professor publicusordinarius and the privat dozent.During his stay in Heidelberg, Moleschottpublished the two most important works of hiscareer, die Nahringlebe fur den Volk(The theoryof nutrition for the people) in 1850 and Kreislaufdes Leben. Physiologische Antworten aufLiebigschemische Briefe (The circulation of life, aphysiological answer to the chemical letters ofLiebig) in 1852.In spite of its simple title, the former workcontained the basic scientific and philosophicaltheories which were developed in the latter.According to these theories a living organism wasbuilt up by the substance of the inorganic worldintroduced with the food. Furthermore, physicaland mental attitude and behaviour were theconsequence of the particular composition of thebody accordingly to the type of nutrition. It can beeasily understood how the scientific thinking ofMoleschott could involve a social involvment in aperiod when the nutritional conditions of the lowerclasses were far from satisfactory.The preface to die Nahringlebe fur den Volkwas written by the German materialistic philosopherLudwing Feuerback. Although his materialismwas different from that of the Dutch scientist, whichhe classified as « vulgar materialism », in the prefacewe find the famous sentence which says that «anindividual is what he eats». I report this sentence,because the Italian translation offered theopportunity to some naive secondary schoolphilosophyteacherstoengageasort of controversyagainst whatthey believed to be the root of Marxianmaterialism. The Italian translation, in fact, omitsthe pronoun «he» and actually says that anindividual is simply a thing which eats. On thebasis of this misinterpretation, these teachers saidthat Feuerback considered man as an animalwhich has to satisfy material needs only, withoutany spiritual or ethical concern. In the fifties of thepresent century somebody transferred the conceptfromFeuerbacktoMarxtorefute communismas the basis of an intrinsic moral degradation !In «Thecirculatinof life» Moleschott developedthe main concepts contained in his previous bookand organized a proper scientific and philosophicalsystem. In brief Moleschott suggests that there is116
Page 1 and 2: Official journal of the Internation
Page 3 and 4: Editorial, Vesalius, VI, 2, 82, 200
Page 5 and 6: M. Aleman and J. Locke, two frustra
Page 11 and 12: J.J. Virey et la naissance de la ch
Page 21 and 22: Oriental medical manuscripts in Uzb
Page 27 and 28: M.-A. Paulze, épouse et collaborat
Page 35: Physiology at the University of Tur
Page 39 and 40: Physiology at the University of Tur
Page 41 and 42: La collection Léo-Errol Pariseau,
Page 47 and 48: La collection Hiram Winnet Orr, Ves
Page 49 and 50: La collection Hiram Winnet Orr, Ves
Page 51 and 52: Vesalius, VI, 2, 130-132, 2000Place
Page 53 and 54: Vesalius, VI, 2, 130-132, 2000The b
Page 55 and 56: Vesalius, VI, 2, 133-135, 2000Finan
Page 57 and 58: Vesalius, VI, 2, 136-150, 2000Compt
Page 59 and 60: Vesalius, VI, 2, 136-150, 2000chang
Page 61 and 62: Vesalius, VI, 2, 136-150, 2000Il y
Page 63 and 64: Vesalius, VI, 2, 136-150, 20006. Ra
Page 65 and 66: Vesalius, VI, 2, 136-150, 2000les c
Page 67 and 68: Vesalius, VI, 2, 136-150, 2000Grèc
Page 69 and 70: Vesalius, VI, 2, 136-150, 2000et l'
Page 71 and 72: Vesalius, VI, 2, 136-150, 2000Disco
Page 73 and 74: Vesalius, VI, 2, 151-154, 2000unive
Page 75 and 76: Vesalius, VI, 2,151-154, 2000Sleim
Page 77 and 78: Vesalius, VI, 2, 156, 2000Informati
Page 79 and 80: Vesalius, VI, 2,157-159, 20008-14 J
Page 81 and 82: Vesalius, VI, 2,160, 2000Applicatio

Official journal of the International Society Revue officielle de la ...

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?