Gabriel Fallopius(1523-1562)

Latinized name of Gabriele Falloppio. The most illustrious of 16th-century Italian anatomists, who contributed greatly to early knowledge of the ear and of the reproductive organs.

Fallopius, was born in Modena, Italy, where he became a canon of the cathedral. He studied medicine at Ferrara, and, after a European tour, became teacher of anatomy in that city. He thence removed to Pisa, and from Pisa, at the instance of Cosmo I., grand-duke of Tuscany, to Padua, where, besides the chairs of anatomy and surgery and of botany, he held the office of superintendent of the new botanical garden.

He became professor at Pisa in 1548, and at Padua in 1551, but died at Padua on the 9th of October 1562. Only one treatise by Fallopius appeared during his lifetime, namely the Observationes analomicae (Venice, 1561).

He extended Vesalius's work and corrected its details. He was the first to describe the clitoris and the tubes leading from the ovary to the uterus, which he described as 'trumpets of the uterus' and which were subsequently named after him. As well as the reproductive system, he studied the anatomy of the brain and eyes. He also carried out investigations on the larynx, muscular action, and respiration.

He studied the general anatomy of the bones; described the internal ear better than previous anatomists, especially the tympanum and its osseous ring, the two fenestrae and their communication with the vestibule and cochlea; and gave the first good account of the stylo-mastoid hole and canal, of the ethmoid bone and cells, and of the lacrimal passages. In myology he rectified several mistakes of Vesalius.

Fallopius was the teacher of Geronimo Fabricius.