Girolamo Fracastoro
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Girolamo Fracastoro (Fracastorius) (1478‑August 8, 1553) was an Italian physician, scholar (in mathematics and geography), poet and atomist.
Born of an ancient family in Verona, and educated at Padua where at 19 he was appointed professor at the University. On account of his eminence in the practice of medicine, he was elected physician of the Council of Trent. A bronze statue was erected in his honor by the citizens of Padua, while his native city commemorated their great compatriot by a marble statue. He lived and practised in his hometown. In 1546 he proposed that epidemic diseases are caused by transferable seedlike entities that could transmit infection by direct or indirect contact or even without contact over long distances. In his writing, the "seeds" of disease seem to refer to chemicals rather than to any living entities; thus while his theory is often confused as a precursor to modern germ theory, it is more properly a separate one. His theory remained influential for nearly three centuries, before being displaced by germ theory.
The name for syphilis is derived from his poem about a shepherdress named Sifilo from 1530 which can be regarded as the first treatise on the disease. The poem suggests using mercury and "guaiaco" as a cure. His 1546 book (De Contagione -- "On Contagion") also gave the first description for typhus. The collected works of Fracastoro appeared for the first time in 1555.
Works
- Syphilidis, sive Morbi Gallici (1530)
- Di Vini Temperatura (1534)
- Homocentricorum sive de Stellis, de Causis Criticorum Dierum Libellus (1535)
- Homocentrica (1538)
- De Contagione et Contagiosis Morbis (1546)
- Syphilis sive de morbo gallico (Poem 1539)
- This article incorporates text from an edition of the New International Encyclopedia that is in the public domain.
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