VOL. XJX.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 151 



Extract of a Letter from Jean Marie Lancisi,* Prof, Anal. Rom., to Mr. 

 Bourdelot, giving an Account of Mr. Malpighi, the Circumstances of his 

 Death, and ivhat was found remarkable on opening his Body. From Brunet's 

 Journal des Progres de la Medecine. ]S1° 226, p. 467. 



Malpighi was very studious, and lived to 6Q years. He had frequent sick- 

 nesses, and had troublesome vomitings for 20 years ; he was also afflicted with 

 the gravel, a haemorrhage in the kidneys, a rheumatism. 



Scarcely had these evils given him some respite, when a cruel palpitation of the 

 heart, with an unequal pulse, afflicted him : and for 4 years before his death a 

 severe sweat all the summer troubled him every night. 



* John Maria Lancisi holds a distinguished rank among the medical writers of Italy. He was 

 born at Rome in 1651 ; was professor of anatomy in one of the colleges there ; and physician to 

 Popes Innocent XII. and Clement XI. He died in his native city in 1720. Notwithstanding his con- 

 stant engagements at the papal court, and the extensive correspondence he kept up with the most 

 learned men, foreigners as well as natives, of his days, he found time to write and publish several 

 considerable works on medical and anatomical subjects ; such as Anatomicae Corp. Humani Synopsis, 

 1684- ; De Mortibus Subitaneis, 1707 ; DeTriplici Intestin. Polypo, 1710 ; De Nativis et Adventitiis 

 Aeris Romani Qualitaiibus, 1711 ; De Raiione Stud. Med. 1715 ; DeNoxiis Pallidum Effluviis, I7l6 ; 

 an excellent and truly original treatise o 1 marsh exhalations, showing their injurious eftects upon the 

 human body (more especially their influence in the production of intermittents,) and suggesting the 

 means of preventing the mischief they occasion ; an Account of Five Epidemic Fevers ; some Tracts on 

 Epizootic Diseases ; an Epistle de Humor. Secretionibus ; another De Vena sine pari ; another De 

 Gangliis Nervor. Besides these, severa other treatises were published from his MSS. after his death ; 

 among which may be mentioned as the most entitled to notice his dissertation de Motu Cordis et 

 Aneurismatibus, and his collect, of Cases and Consultations. His Opera Omnia (but not complete) 

 ■were published at Geneva, in 2 vols. 4to, 17 IS, and afterwards at Venice (with the insertion of 

 some treatises omitted in the Geneva edition) in folio, 1739. 



Lancisi is entitled to great praise for the pains he took to enforce the necessity of a strict attention 

 to the removal of all kind of filth and stagnant waters, lying close or near to the habitations of men ; 

 showing that at all times they contaminate the air in a greater or less degree, so as to impair the 

 health in various ways ; and that not unfrequenlly they prove the source of epidemic diseases. In 

 these respects he rendered the most important services to the inhabitants of Rome. These, however, 

 are but a part of his meritorious exertions in his medical character. He threw much light on some 

 organic diseases, such as apoplexy and aneurisms ; and he conttibuted greatly to the progress of ana- 

 tomy not only by his lectures and some separate tracts thereon, but more especially by editing and 

 explaining the plates of his countryman Eustachius, recovered and presented to the world after 

 having been concealed or mislaid for more than a century and a half. These plates have been since 

 re-edited with further elucidations, by Albinus. — While we record the instances of Lancisi's industry, 

 erudition, and science, we must not omit doing him the justice to mention some other acts which 

 serve to throw additional lustre on his character; we mean his liberality and beneficence ; as testified 

 by the donation of his valuable library during his life time to the Hospital dello Spirito Santo, for the 

 use of the medical pupils ; and by his legacy of a considerable sum of money to the same charitable 

 institution for the maintenance of 60 poor women. 



