Pietro Castelli

Castelli was equally distinguished as a botanist, chemist, and Surgeon . He maintained the necessity for all physicians of studying Anatomy , and declared in 1648 that he had Dissected more than one hundred corpses.

The Dane Thomas Bartolinus (1616-1680) was led by Castelli's fame to visit him in Messina, in 1644 , and speaks of his activity as a publicist. Castelli wrote no less than one hundred and fifty pamphlets. Among these there is one written in 1653 in answer to inquiries by Hieronymus Bardi of Genoa , wherein Castelli speaks of the Cinchona plant and its curative properties in cases of Malaria .

Paolo Boccone's pupil Charles Plumier (1646-1704) later perished on his way to South America to learn more of the cinchona.

Castelli seems to have had but little knowledge of the Cinchona , and no experience in its medicinal application. Still, the pamphlet is noteworthy as being the first Italian publication that mentions the cinchona.

Castelli died at Messina.

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Pietro Castelli