Benedetto Viale Prelà

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Benedetto Viale Prelà (born January 25, 1796 in Bastia , † March 27, 1874 in Rome ) was a French medic.

biography

Family background and medical studies

Benedetto Viale was born on January 25, 1796 in Bastia, Corsica . Son of Paolo Agostino and brother of Salvatore (1787, writer and judge) and Michele (1799, cardinal and archbishop of Bologna). He was encouraged to study medicine by his maternal uncle, Tommaso Prelà (personal physician to Pope Pius VII ), and went to Rome as a young man. He took up his first activities as a doctor in the Santo Spirito in Sassia . In 1817 he narrowly escaped death during a typhus epidemic that was rampant there. Due to his characteristics ("the awakening of his genius, the firmness of his character and the refinement of his education") he was first a student and then a "clinic assistant" of Giuseppe De Matthaeis .

Medical and university career

De Matthaeis proposed his assistant as the primary in the hospitals. De Matthaeis also wanted him to be first his deputy and then in 1852 his successor on the chair of the medical clinic of the then Pontifical University of La Sapienza . He introduced clinical pathology for the diagnosis of internal disease in the classroom and medical practice. The well-known doctor and politician Guido Baccelli was his student and successor. He became a member of the Rome Medical and Surgical College and the Special Congregation for Health. Viale Prelà was later made an archiater by Pope Pius IX. and appointed director of the Roman mental hospital of Santa Maria della Pietà, where he "made every effort to improve the fate of these poor people" who were imprisoned there.

Scientific interests and role in the Nuovi Lincei Pontifical Academy

In addition to medicine, Viale Prelà has long been concerned with chemistry , which was flourishing at that time. He did research in biology (on the presence of iron in urine and sweat) , in hydrology (researching iodine in mineral water ) and even in archeology (researching the Etruscan tombs of ancient Volsinii ). Thanks to these numerous and varied scientific merits, Viale Prelà was made an honorary member of the just from Piux IX in 1847. founded Pontifical Academy of Sciences . He became a full member in 1854 and was its President for three terms, from 1867 to 1873.

Tomb of Benedetto Viale Prelà in the Verano cemetery in Rome

Benedetto Viale Prelà died on March 27, 1874 in Rome due to severe emphysema caused by pneumonia . He was buried in a monumental tomb that is still on the north side of the quadriportico of the Verano cemetery in Rome.

souvenir

An inscription on the wall of the San Giacomo degli Incurabili hospital in Rome, of which he was the chief physician, commemorates the charity of 6,500 lire for the poor.

Most important writings

  • Sull'ammoniaca nella respirazione (About ammonia in respiration) (1852)
  • Praelectiones clinicarum (1854)
  • Del ferro nelle urine normali, e nel sudore (iron in normal urine and sweat) (1854)
  • Nuove modificazioni al metodo di Gaultier per disvelare lo iodo dalle sue combinazioni (New modified Gaultier method for dissolving iodine from its combinations) (1855)
  • Sulla natura degli aromi nelle piante (On the nature of aromas in plants) (1855)
  • L'ammoniaca nella respirazione (The ammonia in respiration) (1855)
  • Sulle acque albule presso Tivoli: analisi chimica (The Albula water in Tivoli: chemical analysis) (Together with Vincenzo Latini) (1857)
  • Rapporto intorno ad alcuni nuovi metodi per estrarre l'alcool, e fabbricare il vino (Report on some new methods of obtaining alcohol and making wine) (1857)
  • Sul belletto trovato nelle tombe etrusche dell'antico Vulsinio (About the lacquer found in the Etruscan tombs of ancient Vulsinio) (1858)
  • Rapporto statistico del Manicomio di S.Maria della Pietà di Roma per gli anni 1861 e 1862 (Statistical report on the Manicomio di S.Maria della Pietà in Rome for the years 1861 and 1862) (1864)
  • Sulla causa del diluvio universale. Memoria (About the Causes of the Flood. Thoughts) (1873)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Diorio, Benedetto Viale Prelà , p. 3
  2. ^ Diorio, pp. 3-4
  3. ↑ a b c d Diorio, p. 4
  4. ↑ a b Diorio, p. 5
  5. ^ Diorio, pp. 3 and 6.
  6. ↑ Diorio, p. 8 ff.

literature

  • Vincenzo Diorio: Il Comm.re Prof.re Benedetto Viale Prelà: cenni biografici seguiti da un catalogo dei lavori del medesimo . In: Atti dell'Accademia Pontificia de 'Nuovi Lincei . No. XXVII . Rome 1874, p. 21 (Italian, Digitale-sammlungen.de - Session V of April 26, 1874, Tip. Delle Scienze Matematiche e Fisiche).

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Viale Prelà, Benedetto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French medic
DATE OF BIRTH January 25, 1796
PLACE OF BIRTH Bastia
DATE OF DEATH March 27, 1874
Place of death Rome