Gaspare Aselli

Gaspare Aselli (or Asellio) (c. 1581 – 9 September 1625)[1] was an Italian physician noted for the discovery of the lacteal vessels of the lymphatic system. Aselli discovered (or rediscovered) the chylous vessels, and studied systematically the significance of these vascular structures.

Gaspare Aselli
Portrait of Gaspare Aselli (c.1581–1626), Italian physician
Born1581 
Cremona, Duchy of Milan
Died9 September 1626  (aged 44–45)
Milan, Duchy of Milan
Alma mater
OccupationPhysician, surgeon, anatomist 
Employer
MovementScientific Revolution

Biography

Gaspare Aselli was born in Cremona and became professor of anatomy and surgery at the university of Pavia. He later practised medicine in Milan, where he died. He is buried close to Porta Venezia.

Aselli is regarded as the discoverer of the lacteals, or the set of vessels which absorb or suck up the nutritious portion of the food of animals, i.e., the chyle from the upper part of the intestinal tube, in order to convey it to the heart and lungs, so that it may become incorporated in the circulating fluid or blood. On 23 July 1622, during a vivisection performed on a dog, he saw these vessels, and from the white color of the fluid they contained, from the milk-like character of which is derived the name of lacteal, distinguished them from the other vessels, and demonstrated them in his lectures.

He drew up, but never published, an account of his discovery. His description of the lacteals, De lactibus sive Lacteis venis, was published after his death, in 1627 at Milan, thanks to the liberality of Fabri de Peiresc.[2] Aselli's work was later reprinted several times all over Europe: Basel (1628), Leiden (1640, and again 1641), Amsterdam (1645). It was included in the 1645 Opera omnia of the Padua anatomist Adriaan van den Spiegel.

A "liceo" bears his name in Cremona.[3]

Works
Lacteals in dog's mesentery, from Aselli, De Lactibus..., 1627.
  • De lactibus, sive lacteis venis. Leiden: Johannes Maire. 1640.

Further reading

Notes and references
  1. Premuda, Loris (1962). "Aselli, Gaspare". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Volume 4: Arconati–Bacaredda (in Italian). Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. ISBN 978-8-81200032-6.
  2. Stirling and Banting.
  3. Liceo Scientifico Aselli


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