Biographical Sketch of Anthony Scarpa. 243 



Though he had withdrawn from the practice of surgery, he 

 still continued to promote its advancement. In operating for 

 the stone he preferred the lateral operation with the gorget of 

 Hawkins, on which he made an improvement, which rendered 

 the incision of the prostate parallel with that of the teguments : 

 he energetically and successfully opposed the recto-vesical opera- 

 tion. He always applied the ligature according to the plan 

 of Anel, that had been neglected, but which was revived and 

 perfected by Hunter, which consisted in leaving the aneuris- 

 matic bag untouched, and obliterating the artery in the place 

 where it is healthy, and at a point between this bag and the 

 heart, leaving the employment of replacing the principal ar- 

 terial trunk, and supporting the life of the organ below, to 

 the collateral vessels. He explained a new kind of aneurism, 

 to which he gave the appellation of aneurism by anastomosis 

 of the bone, which consists in the anomalous dilatation of the 

 many small arterial vessels in these hard parts, and which never 

 occurs without the total disappearance of all the hard part of 

 the bone. Scirrhus and cancer, neuralgy, perinaeal hernia, the 

 artificial pupil, the sanguineous varicose tumours, complicated 

 ascites, dropsy of the spermatic cord, the functions of the nerves, 

 which proceed from the brain and spinal marrow, of which some 

 are destined for the organs of sense, and the others for those of 

 motion, and many other matters in medicine and physiology, re- 

 ceived from him a new light, and are collected ii^ three tliick 

 volumes *. '^^^i'* '^^^ rvyj.\uii io 'ihuxr. mU bob siiiyj ixijU/, A 



We have already seen Scarpa undertake his journey to 

 Southern Italy in 1820, loaded with years. His love for the 

 fine arts, especially painting, was the principal motive for this 

 excursion. It was whilst surveying the rich rooms of Tableaux 

 in Florence, that he made a magnificent collection of original 

 pictures of all the Italian Schools, at a great expense. In this 

 department of the fine arts he acquired so elegant a taste, and 

 so perfect a judgment, that his opinion was often requested re- 

 garding pictures whose origin was dubious : every one knows 

 the judgment which he passed on a magnificent picture, the 



• Opuscoli de Chirurgia di ArUonio Scarpa^ 3. vols. Pavia 1825 and 18.'{2. 



q2 



