Taliacotius, Gaspar

, professor of medicine and anatomy in the university of Bologna, was born in that city in 1546, and died there Nov. 7, 1599, in the fifty-third year of his age. There is little recorded of his life; his fame depends on his having practised the art of restoring lost parts of the body by insition, particularly the nose, which has been a topic of ridicule ever since it was mentioned by Butler in his Hudibras^ “So learned Taliacotius from, &c.” Addison has also a humorous paper on the same subject in the Tatler (No. 260), and Dr. Grey some remarks in his notes on Hudibras. Taliacotius, however, was not the inventor of this art, for he allows that Alexander Benedictus and Vesalius had given some account of the same art before him, and Ambrose Pare mentions a surgeon who practised it much and successfully. Charles Bernard, serjeant-surgeon to queen Anne, asserts, that though those who have not examined the history may be sceptics, there are incontestable proofs that this art was actually practised with dexterity and success. Other writers have doubted whether Taliacotius did more than write on the theory, but there seems no foundation for depriving him of the honours of success in practice also. Our readers may, indeed, satisfy themselves as to the practicability of the art, as far as the nose is concerned, by perusing a very recent treatise, “An account of two successful operations for restoring a lost | Nose, from the integuments of the forehead, in the cases of two officers of his majesty’s army,” by J. C. Carpue, surgeon, 1815, 4to. The lips and ears were the other parts which Taiiacotius professed to restore; and his writings on the subject are, 1. “Epistola ad Hieronymum Merculiarem de naribus, multo ante abscissis> reficiendis,” Francf. 1587, 8vo. 2. “De Curtorum Chirurgia per insitionem libri duo/ 7 Venice, 1597, fol. and reprinted at Francfort, 1598, 8vo, under the title” Chirurgia nova de narium, aurium, labiorumque defectu, per insitionem cutis ex humero, arte hactenus omnibus ignota, sarciendo." The magistrates of Bologna had such a high opinion of Taliacotius’s success, that they erected a statue of him, holding a nose in his hand. ¹