Bertrandi, John Ambrose Maria

, an eminent anatomist and surgeon, was born at Turin, Oct. 18, 1723. His father, who was only a poor phlebotomist and barber, contrived to give him an education, and intended to bring him up to the church, which was thought most likely to afford him a maintenance, but one of their friends Sebastian Klingher, then professor of surgery, induced him to study that branch, in which he soon evinced great talents. He was only twenty- two when he read a dissertation on Ophthalmography, on which Haller and Portal bestowed the highest praise. The celebrated Bianchi connected himself with him, but after a few years their friendship was interrupted by the literary disputes which took place between Bianchi and Morgagni, and Bertrandi preferring“what he thought truth to a friendship which was of great importance to him, was obliged to leave Bianchi. In 1747 he was elected an associate of the college of surgery, and the same year published his” Dissertation on the Liver,“which, Haller says, contains many useful observations. In, 1752, the king, Charles Emmanuel, offered to bear his expenses to Paris and London. He accordingly went to Paris, where he increased his knowledge and practice of the art of surgery, and in consequence of his two papers read in the academy,” De Hydrocele,“and” De hepatis abscessibus qui vulneribus capitis superveniunt,“was admitted as a foreign member. In 1754 he went to London, and lodged for a year with sir William Bromfield, our late eminent surgeon, during which time, as at Paris, he studied hospital practice, and cultivated the acquaintance of men of science. On his return to Turin, the king founded for his sake a new professorship of practical surgery and anatomy, and at Bertrandi’s request, built a handsome amphitheatre in the hospital of St. John. He was afterwards appointed first surgeon to the king, and professor of chemistry in the university. Surgery now, which had | been practised in Piedmont only by regimental surgeons, began to wear a new face and a literary society, which was afterwards completely established under the title of the” Royal Academy of Sciences,“began now to hold its meetings, and Bertrandi contributed some valuable papers to the first volume of their Memoirs. His principal publication was his” Trattato delle operazioni di Chirurgia," Nice, 1763, 2 vols. 8vo, which was afterwards translated into French and German. He was employed on a treatise on anatomy and a comparative history of ancient and modern surgery, when death deprived science and humanity of his valuable labours, in 1765, in his forty-second year. His works already published, and his posthumous works, edited by Penchienati and Brugnone form 13 vols. 8vo. ¹