Santorio Santorio (1561–1636), also called Santorio Santorii, Sanctorius of Padua, and various combinations of these names, was an Italian physiologist, physician, and professor. From 1611 to 1624 he was a professor at Padua where he performed experiments in temperature, respiration and weight. Sanctorius studied what he termed insensible perspiration and originated the study of metabolism. For a period of thirty years he weighed himself, everything he ate and drank. He also weighed all waste products. He is credited with the design of the clinical thermometer. He invented a device which he called the pulsilogium for measuring the pulse which was the first machine system in medical history. A century later another physician, de la Croix, used the pulsilogium to test cardiac function. Sanctorius also invented an early waterbed. In 1614, he wrote De statica medicina, a medical text that saw five publications through 1737.

References and external links

• Santorio Sanctorius at the Science & Society Picture Library.
• The first man/machine interaction in medicine: the pulsilogium of Sanctorius of Padua, J. Levett and G. Agarwal, Medical instrumentation 13 (Jan.-Feb. 1979), #1, 61–63. Abstract at PubMed
• Sanctorius in the Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia (via Infoplease.)

Italian physicians | Italian physiologists | 1561 births | 1636 deaths

Santorio Santorio