Santorio Santorio

Santorio brought instruments and numerical comparison into early modern studies of the body.

The Venetian physician developed or adapted devices for measuring pulse, temperature, and body weight. His 1614 Ars de statica medicina reported long-running balance experiments and helped make quantification a recognizable medical method. Santorio treated bodily change as something that could be measured rather than judged only by touch or description. His instruments and long weighing experiments helped establish a quantitative style of physiology, even when the mechanisms behind his measurements remained uncertain.

Sources

• Santorio Santorio and the emergence of quantified medicine, 1614–1790 — Fabrizio Bigotti and Jonathan Barry, 2019
• The forgotten history of thermometer, part I: Santorio Santorio's contribution to the science of thermometry — Fabrizio Bigotti, 2019