Dr Ramazzini (1633-1714) and the occupational diseases of midwives and wet nurses.

Bernardino Ramazzini was born in Carpi near Modina in Italy in 1633. He studied medicine in Parma and took his doctorate in 1659. After a year with Dr Rossi in Rome, he practised for some years in the province of Viterbo until a severe bout of malaria caused him to return to his home town. On recovering he married Francesca Righi. They had a son who died in infancy and two daughters. Carpi served as a summer resort for many of the leading families of Modina. Impressing them with his learning and charm, Ramazzini was invited in 1671 to move to the city where he quickly gained the patronage of the ruling d'Este family. In 1678 Duke Francesco II founded a university in Modina and Ramazzini was appointed Professor of the Theory of Medicine, a post that he held for the next 22 years. We are told that Ramazzini was a lean man of sallow complexion with black hair that became prematurely white and was concealed by an elegant wig. He dressed well and walked so fast that his students had difficulty in keeping up with him. Games he avoided but he thoroughly enjoyed playing chess. He paid little attention to the affairs of the household but in all else was a hard worker and a keen observer. In 1700 Ramazzini was persuaded to accept the Chair of Practical Medicine in Padua. He was 67. In 1707 he was made President of the Venetian College and two years later became Primarii of the medical faculty. But by this time his health and eye sight were failing and in 1714 he suffered a severe apoplexy. Dr Morgagni and other colleagues hastened to his bedside but he died a few hours later. He was 82. His body was laid to rest in the Church of the Nuns of St Helena in Padua. Dr Ramazzini, a contemporary of Malpighi and Leibnitz with whom he corresponded regularly, was one of the great figures of 17th century Italian medicine. Besides being a scholar and clinician he studied barometry and hydrostatics. He was also a distinguished hygienist and epidemiologist in the Hippocratic mould. Indeed, on being elected a member of the Viennese Academy of Curiosi Naturae in 1691, he was given the name of 'Hippocrates III'. However, it was for his work on occupational diseases that he is best remembered. His magnum opus called the Diseases of Workers, first published in 1700 and expanded in 1713, is a medical classic.1 It deals with the diseases of over 50 different ...:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.. ..: ^,' .. t X