Gabriello Fallopio

Fallopius, Gabriel

 Italian Gabriello Fallopio

(born 1523, Modena—died Oct. 9, 1562, Padua) Italian anatomist. He contributed greatly to knowledge of the ear and reproductive system. His observations of the dissection of cadavers are outlined in Observationes anatomicae (1561). He discovered the fallopian tubes, which connect the ovaries to the uterus, and several major nerves of the head and face. He described the semicircular canals in the ear and named the vagina, placenta, clitoris, palate, and cochlea. He and Andreas Vesalius overturned many of Galen's principles, a development essential to Renaissance medicine.

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Fallopio, Gabriello 

(also Falloppio, Falloppia, Fallopius). Born 1523 in Modena; died Oct. 9, 1562, in Padua. Italian physician and anatomist.

Fallopio studied medicine in Modena as a student of A. Vesalius. He was a professor at the universities of Pisa (1548–51), Ferrara (1548), and Padua (beginning in 1551). His principal research was in human anatomy. Fallopio described the skeleton and vessels of the fetus as well as the inguinal ligament, the facial canal within the petrous part of the temporal bone, and the human oviducts (fallopian tubes). He also studied the structure of the liver, the bile ducts, and the urinary tract.

WORKS

Opera genuino omnia. vols. 1–3. Venice, 1606.