Lorenzo BelliniBorn 3 Sep 1643; died 8 Jan 1704 at age 60.Italian physician and anatomist who described the collecting, or excretory, tubules of the kidney, known as Bellini's ducts (tubules). Bellini is considered a founder of Italian iatromechanism, a pioneer in applying mechanical philosophy to the functions of the human body. His early interests were anatomy and physiology. The first essay he published, Exercitatio anatomica de usu renum (1662), contains his anatomical discovery that in the supposedly unorganized parenchyma there is a complicated structure composed of fibers, open spaces, and densely packed tubules opening into the pelvis of the kidney. His further publications extended his effort to explain all important physiological phenomena according to the law of mechanics. (Several discoveries previously ascribed to Lorenzo Bellini were made earlier by Bartolomeo Eustachi.)Image: kidney structure as drawn by Bellini |
