Valsalva, AM
ACHIEVEMENTS:
Described new knowledge about the structure of the ear
Early pioneer of humane treatment for the insane
NICKNAME/ALIAS:
None
DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH:
17 June 1666, Imola, Italy
DATE AND PLACE OF DEATH AND AGE AT DEATH:
2 February 1723, Bologna, Italy. Aged 58
DISCIPLINE:
Physician, anatomist
FIELD:
Medicine, anatomy
LANGUAGE:
Italian
PARENTS:
Father: Pompeo Valsalva
Mother: Caterina Tosi
SIBLINGS:
5
SPOUSE:
Elena Lisi
CHILDREN:
3
EDUCATION:
Jesuit school
MAJOR WORK:
“De aure human tractatus” (1704)
LIFE AND TIMES:
Valsalva was the son of a wealthy goldsmith. After being educated by the Jesuits he studied philosophy and mathematics in Bologna.
Malphighi*, the founder of microscopic anatomy, was one of Valsalva’s tutors and the two men became close. Valsalva qualified as a doctor of philosophy and medicine in 1687 and became part of a discussion group of natural scientists which led to the founding of the Accademia degli Inquieti.
In 1697 Valsalva was appointed public engraver of anatomy. In 1704 he published “De aure humana tractatus”, his renowned treatise on the anatomy of the ear. He was familiar with the work of Eustachi*, the sixteenth century anatomist, who was the first to produce a detailed description of the auditory system, and his own work was probably influenced by Eustachi’s engravings.
Valsalva differentiated between the outer ear, and the middle and inner ear, and he provided a detailed anatomical description of the outer muscles of the ear, and of the muscles of the bones of the inner ear. It was Valsalva who named the Eustachian tube after by his predecessor, Eustachi, who first described it.
Valsalva extended his description to the structure of the throat muscles and the muscle tissue which controls the Eustachian tube (a canal linking the throat to the middle ear), and in doing so emphasized the importance of the link between diseases of the ear and nasopharyingeal conditions which is fully recognized today.
Valsalva was the first to describe the whole of the inner ear as a labyrinth and he confirmed the existence of fluid in the middle ear. His attempt to describe the ear physiologically was less successful. For expelling foreign bodies from the ear he devised what is still known as Valsalva’s test in which the patient blows hard with both mouth and nose closed.
This was recommended by Valsalva’s pupil Morgagni* in his book “De sedibus” and is used today in cardiovascular diagnosis.
In 1705 Valsalva was appointed as lecturer and demonstrator at Bologna where he remained for the whole of his career. He undertook so many dissections in the antaomical amphitheatre that his health was affected by the noxious air, and his research was so rigorous that he even tipped his tongue in gangrene.
He also practised medicine, and in the treatment of the insane he anticipated the reforms of Pinel* in his advocacy of more humane treatment for the insane whom he considered to be suffering from an organic disease.
He served as a surgeon in the hospitals of Bologna, foreseeing the value of nephrectomy and splenectomy, and undertaking vasal and tumor surgery.
In 1721, Valsalva was conferring with his pupil Morgagni, whose “Adversaria anatomica” he was editing, when he had a stroke and died.
ASSESSMENT: Valsalva extended the anatomical knowledge, particularly of the ear.
EXTRA CONNECTIONS; None
ONELINER: AM Valsalva, pioneer in ear studies
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
DSB
Ackernecht, Erwin H, A Short History of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 1979.