Giovanni Battista Morgagni was born in 1682 in Italy. He was the founder of the science of ‘pathological anatomy’ and the first physician to base diagnosis and treatment on the knowledge of this science. Pathological anatomy combines two branches of medicine together- pathology and anatomy.
Pathology is the science of the origin, nature and course of diseases and anatomy deals with the structure of the human body. Therefore we can define pathological anatomy as the study of the changes that occur in organs and tissues as a result of diseases.
However, the changes caused due to the diseases can only be discovered by dissecting the diseased body and studying the internal organs. In other words it may be said that pathological anatomy is the study of the dead to treat the living.
Morgagni used his vast knowledge and experience with morbid anatomy in a practical way to treat his patients. He was an extremely popular physician with a thriving practice.
During his lifetime, he conducted years of painstaking research and gathered information from more than 600 postmortem examinations. He published his greatest work in 1761 at the age of 80. His book, Of the Seats and Causes of Diseases Investigated through Anatomy went on to become the gold standard of pathological anatomy, establishing it as an Independent science and heralding new standards of exactness and precision in medicine.
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