Sanctorius (săngktôr`ēəs), Ital. Santorio, 1561–1636, Italian physiologist. He was a professor at Padua (1611–24). By his quantitative experiments in temperature, respiration, and weight, he measured what he called "insensible perspiration" and laid the foundation for the study of metabolism. Among the instruments that he designed was a clinical thermometer. He wrote De statica medicina (1614; tr. 5th ed. 1737).

Santorio, Santorio

Latin Sanctorius

(born March 29, 1561, Capodistria—died Feb. 22, 1636, Venice) Italian physician. He adapted several of Galileo's inventions to develop a medical thermometer and a pulse clock. To test Galen's assertion that respiration also occurs through the skin as “insensible perspiration,” Santorio built a large scale on which he frequently ate, worked, and slept, so he could study his body-weight changes in relation to his solid and liquid intake and output. After 30 years, he found the total of visible excreta was less than the amount ingested; his study marked the introduction of quantitative procedure into medical research. His On Medical Measurement (1614) was the first systematic study of basal metabolism.