Malpighi
was an Italian physician, anatomist, physiologist, and
a pioneer microscopist.
He graduated from medicine in 1653, became lecturer
in 1656, and was appointed to the chair of Theoretical
Medicine at the University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
He was also Professor at Messina, but eventually he
returned to Bologna, his birthplace, where he spent
the next 25 years. Finally he became private physician
to Pope Innocent XII.
He was one of the first to utilize the microscope
in the study of animals and vegetable structure. His
discoveries were so important that he is considered
the founder of microscopic anatomy. He applied himself
to vegetable histology and became acquainted with
spiral vessels of plants in 1662. His major
contribution was Anatome Plantarum (1675). The
important discovery that the layers of tissues in
leaves and young shoots are continuous with those of
the main stem was made by Malpighi. In wood he
distinguished fibers, tubes and other constituents. He
was first to understand food functions of leaves,
observe stomata in leaves, and nodules on legume
roots. He realized that the ovule developed into a
seed and the carpel into a fruit or a portion thereof.
"He arrived at the curious conclusion that the flower
leaves were organs for the excretion of ignoble saps
in preparation for the formation of the fruits." He
also first observed circulation of the blood.
