Baglivi, George

, an eminent Italian physician, was born at Ragusa, in the year 1669, of a family which originally came from Armenia. Pietro Angelo Baglivi, an eminent and opulent physician, is said to have adopted this youth, and bestowed on him his name, while he charged himself with his maintenance and education. George Baglivi, accordingly, was sent to Salerno, where he took his first degree, and where he became partial to the study of natural history. The same pursuit he afterwards followed at Padua and Bononia, but his chief instructor and most intimate friend was Malpighi, whom he visited at Rome, and by whose influence he was promoted to teach anatomy in that city. With many frionds, this occupation procured him also some enemier, excited probably by the fame he obtained. He persisted, however, in his lectures, and published his “Praxis,” which differed much from that in common use, as he recommended a closer attention to clinical observations than had been usual, and | discarded the humoral system altogether^ attributing the cause of diseases to the altered tone of the solids. He supposed likewise an alternate motion between the heart and the- dura mater, by which the whole animal machine was actuated. He had, however, no sooner published these doctrines, than Antonio Pacchione accused him of having stolen them from his works, if he denied the charge, or of having taken them, if he would confess it; but Baglivi proved that Pacchione’s observations were published almost a year later than his own, and urged, that whatever coincidence there might be, he had the credit of establishing his doctrines upon a more firm basis. His enthusiasm in his profession led him to devote much of his time to writing, and his pieces went through many editions before they were collected, and printed together at Nurimberg, 1738, 4to, but afterwards much more completely at Venice, in 1752, and lastly, with a preface, notes, and emendations by Phil. Pinel, M. D. 2 vols. 1788, 8vo. There are also Paris editions in 4to, 1711 and 1765. His biographer represents him as a man of piety and benevolence, and of much learning, independent of his more immediate studies. He died March 1707. ¹