, professor of medicine and anatomy in the university of Bologna, was born
, 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. 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.