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(Epist. II., 328), viz., the circulation of the blood in the vessels we 

 now call capillaries. He also ligatured the root of the lung, and, after 

 the vessels were turgid with blood, dried the lung and saw the red 

 network on the vesicles. This method is still one which should be 

 shown to every student of medicine, even in these days. Malpighi 

 had thus found the missing link that made Harvey's discovery 

 complete. In 1668, Anton van Leeuwenhoek saw the capillaries in 

 fishes, e.g., eels, and gave a careful description of them. 



The results of his researches on the tongue of the ox, De 

 Lingua, he addressed to Borelli. He described the lingual papilla 1 

 and traced nerves to them, and regarded them as organs of taste. Led 

 from this to the skin for the papillae of the skin were then unknown, 

 although Fabricius was acquainted with the epidermis and dermis he 

 discovered the layer of the epidermis called the rete mucosum or rete 

 Malpighi in his honour. 



In 1666, the year he left Messina, he published De Viscerum 

 structura, exercMationes anatomicce ; accedit Dissertatio de Pnlypo 

 cordifi. (Bonon.) He describes the liver, spleen, and kidney. He 

 already knew the difference between conglomerate glands, i.e., those 

 with a duct, as taught by F. Sylvius, and conglobate or lymph 

 glands. As to the liver, although it had been carefully described by 

 Fr. Glisson, Malpighi showed that it consisted of lobules, or acini, 

 and that it formed bile as the parotid forms saliva, and is a 

 conglomerate gland like the pancreas. He also gave careful descrip- 

 tions of the spleen, and considerably advanced our knowledge of 

 the kidney. In 1662, a youth, L. Bellini by name, a pupil of 

 Borelli's, described the straight tubes that still bear his name and 

 open on the apex of a Malpighian pyramid. Malpighi saw the 

 convoluted tubules, described the capsules that still bear his name, and 

 how each contains a cluster of blood vessels a glomerulus and he 

 was of opinion that they must play a great part in the secretion of 

 urine. He gives no illustrations. Practically little advance was 

 made in our knowledge of the structure of these organs until we 

 come to the time of William Bowman and Carl Ludwig. He 

 also published a great work on embryology, De formatione PuUi 

 in Ow, 1666, thus carrying on, and greatly extending, the work of 

 Fabricius and Harvey. It was printed, like so many of Malpighi's 

 other works, at the expense of the Royal Society. The indefatigable 

 Oldenburg, secretary of the Royal Society, when once he got into 

 correspondence with Malpighi, kept up a long correspondence with 

 him, and it was in response to an inquiry by Oldenburg that 

 Malpighi contributed his famous researches on the silkworm, 

 including its development. The portrait is taken from his Opera 

 Posthuma, 1697. 



