SANTORIO SANTORIO: BIOGRAPHY AND CONTRIBUTIONS - ARTE - 2025

Santorio Santorio (1561-1636) was a Slovenian professor, physicist and physiologist known by some experts as the founding father of studies on metabolic balance, and recognized by medical science as the creator of the clinical thermometer.

In this article, we are going to talk about a man whose career in the field of medicine greatly influenced the evolution of diagnostic methods used today, especially at the instrumental level.

In this way, Santorio was mainly recognized for his contributions to science through studies on insensitive perspiration and the creation of clinical instruments. But who was this man really?

Biography

Early years

Born in the town of Capodistria, now known as Koper, in Slovenia, on March 29, 1561, from a young age this man had a broad interest in health and physics issues.

However, it was in Italy around 1575 when his studies took shape before the Faculty of Philosophy and Medicine of the University of Padua where it would take him 7 years to obtain his degree.

Once his career began, this man was summoned to serve Maximilian, regent of Poland, a little before the end of the century. Years later he would be part of the staff as a professor teaching the chair of Theoretical Medicine in his own house of studies where he remained in practice until 1624.

Although little has been defined at the bibliographic level regarding his travels to the South Slavic countries, it is quite remarkable that most of his life was spent in Italy, where he maintained professional relationships with the astronomer Galileo Galilei and other notable scientists of the epoch.

Finally, Santorio died in Venice on February 22, 1636, leaving behind a large number of studies, instruments and findings that founded the connection between physics, mechanics and medical studies.

Your contributions

Santorio was the one who gave impetus to iatrophysical medicine. This is the branch of scientific medicine that evaluates the processes of the body based on a mechanical, numerical and geometric context.

On this, iatrophysical medicine observes the human body as a machinery made up of various elements and mechanical processes, and distinguishes itself by recognizing diseases as failures in one or another process, regardless of their causes.

On the other hand, he highlights the impact that his work had on the development of medical and even meteorological equipment, making use of instruments for the first time to assign metric units to wind and water currents.

In addition, Santorio is considered a pioneer of experimental medicine because of his first work, Ars de statica Medicina (1612), an experiment in which he discovered the need to replicate results, pushing the Italian physicist and doctor to carry out repetitions of said experiment during 30 years of study.

Santorio's instruments

On the other hand, Santorio is recognized for his incredible contribution in the area of ​​clinical instrumentation.

In addition to the scale chair of his own design with which he established his first famous experiment, this Italian physicist and doctor is recognized for having created the first clinical thermometer, in addition to working on the design of instruments such as:

The hygrometer

With the function of measuring the degree of humidity and other gases in the air.

The trocar

It is an instrument in the shape of a cylindrical stinger that fulfills the function of reducing fluids during laparoscopic surgery by being placed through the abdominal area.

Catheter

Although Santorio's design was specially designed for the extraction of kidney stones, this instrument, which consists of a narrow and flexible tube, fulfills the function of allowing the injection or drainage of fluids through the veins or other tissues of the body.

The heart rate monitor

Santorio's first rustic design consisted of a device that compared the pulsations to a chain pendulum by comparing the velocities of the pulsations to identify patterns of acceleration.

In conclusion, Santorio Santorio represents one of the pillars of modern medicine, both for his contributions to instrumental development and for his antecedent regarding the process of experimental medicine.

Plays

However, within what makes Santorio Santorio's work great, are the contributions that his studies presented to future researchers and designers of medical instruments, among which his works stand out:

Methodi vitandorum errorum omnium

In this work, Santorio describes the implications of the use of the pendulum at a medical level, and it is the first antecedent in which he begins to use measures and physical conditions combined in the medical knowledge of the time.

Ars de statica medicine '1612

Ars de statica Medicina is known as the first controlled experiment, and applied to a person, on human metabolism.

Santorio even managed to get the first evidence of what is recognized as insensitive perspiration, the way in which the body releases volatile substances through the skin.

Other works

On the other hand, Santorio also presented other works such as: Commentaria in artem Medicinalem Galeni (1614), Commentaria in primam fen primi libri canonis Auicennae (1625), and Commentaria in primam sectionem Aphorismorum Hippocratis (1629).

Although they had less impact on a scientific level, they accentuate the value that Santorio gave to the theory of vitalism, a doctrine that implied that there was a vital principle or energy that drove all living tissue.

References

1. Claus zittel. Philosophies of technology: Francis Bacon and his contemporaries. BRILL, 2008 Vol. 11: 109
2. Santorio Santorio. Medicine Statica: Being the Aphorisms of Sanctorius, Translated Into English, with Large Explanations: To which is Added, Dr. Keil's Medicina Statica Britannica, with Comparative Remarks and Explanations. As Also Medico-physical Essays. T. Longman, and J. Newton, 1737
3. John William Draper Textbook on Chemistry: For the Use of Schools and Universities. Harvard University. 6. March 2007; 10:54
4. Brazilian Journal of Intensive Therapy. (2006-2007) Vascular access and catheter associated with bloodstream infections. Dr. Marcelo Bonvento. Recovered from rbti.org.br
5. Brazilian Society of Cardiology. Routes of cardiology. Luiz Introcaso. Recovered from publicacoes.cardiol.br