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Meli Domenico Bertoloni , Mechanism, Experiment, Disease: Marcello Malpighi and Seventeenth-Century Anatomy . Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press , 2011. Pp. xii+439. ISBN 978-0-8018-9904-1 . £23.50 (paperback).
It is probably safe to say that Domenico Bertoloni Meli's recent book is the most comprehensive account to date of the works of Marcello Malpighi, a well-known seventeenth-century Italian physician and anatomist. Meli spent over a decade studying Malpighi's works within the wider context of early modern anatomy, natural philosophy and medicine, and his various publications on the subject are now brought together in a single book. This in itself is an impressive feat, as Malpighi's research ranged from studies on the silkworm to treatises on the liver, the lungs, the sense organs and the structure of glands, as well as anatomies of plants and investigations of insects. Meli's account is especially enlightening on the Italian context of early modern anatomy, but also caters to other interests in the history of science and medicine. Using Malpighi's work as a 'lens', Bertoloni Meli focuses particularly on the rise and spread of investigative techniques within anatomy and natural history, such as microscopy, injections, mechanical experiments and vivisection. Moreover, Mechanism, Experiment, Disease is interspersed with wonderful illustrations, which are accompanied by interesting reflections on the visual representation of theoretical schemas.
The book is divided into four parts, each tackling one aspect of Malpighi's formation as a leading physician and anatomist: the rise of microscopic anatomy; the mechanical organization of the body; natural history, including the anatomy of plants and insects; and the relation of...