Luigi Luciani

Luciani, Luigi 

Born Nov. 23, 1840, in Ascoli-Piceno; died June 23, 1919, in Rome. Italian physiologist.

Luciani began teaching at Parma in 1875. He was a professor at Siena from 1880 to 1882, at Florence from 1882 to 1893, and at Rome from 1893 to 1917. His principal works dealt with the physiology of the heart and respiration, the effect of prolonged starvation on the body, and the physiology of the central nervous system, particularly the cerebellum. He was the first to remove a dog’s cerebellum and keep the animal alive for a long time. On the basis of this operation, he advanced the theory that the cerebellum is auxiliary to the cerebral hemispheres in regulating the body’s functions.

WORKS

Fisiologia del digiuno. Florence, 1889.
II cervelletto. Florence, 1891.
Fisiologia dell’uomo, 2nd ed., vols. 1-4. Milan, 1904-11.