Domenico Barduzzi (Brisighella, Aug. 5, 1847 - Siena, Feb. 27, 1929) was an Italian dermatologist, hydrologist and scholar of problems pertaining to syphilis and its treatment.
He is considered an innovator in the field of dermatology associated with venereology, especially in the study of dermosyphilopathy. He also distinguished himself in the fields of hydrology, social medicine, history of medicine and also as a politician at the university level.
He was one of the promoters of the establishment of an Italian society of dermatology and syphilography, of which he became secretary.
Biography Domenico Barduzzi was born in Brisighella on August 5, 1847, to Carlo Barduzzi, a land surveyor, and Angela Tani, a housewife. He undertook his early studies in his hometown, until 1863, when he took and passed the entrance examination at the Regio Liceo Torricelli in Faenza, and then completed the 1867–1868 school year at the Liceo Dante in Florence.Pietro Malpezzi, Barduzzi brisighellese e romagnolo, in Andreassi, et al., pp. 115-117.
He obtained a degree in Medicine in 1872 in Pisa, to which he added the Diploma of Free Practice obtained in 1874 in Florence and in 1882 the University Teaching Licence in Dermatology at the University of Modena thanks to his studies in dermatology under Augusto Michelacci. In 1883 he obtained the position of extraordinary professor of Dermosyphilopathy in the University of Pisa and in the following year participated in the competition for the same chair and ranked third, while the winner was Celso Pellizzari, who was already an extraordinary professor in Siena.Carlo Ricci, Barduzzi e l'Università, in Andreassi, et al., pp. 19-20 After Pellizzari's transfer, Barduzzi was initially offered the vacancy in Siena, which he declined, and in 1886 he passed the competition for the chair of clinical dermosyphilopathy at the University of Siena in which he became dean of the Faculty of Medicine in 1901. Rector in alternate years between 1898 and 1912, he retained the professorship until 1922.Francesca Vannozzi in Andreassi, et al., p. 85. He received, among others, high honors such as the appointment as Knight of the Order of the Crown of Italy in 1891 and the appointment as Grand Officer of the Crown of Italy in 1922, and devoted himself to the study of hydrology, contributing to specialist journals and magazines and taking on numerous offices and positions, including directing the San Giuliano Baths in 1885, and to research in the history of medicine, especially focusing on figures in Italian medicine such as Gentile da Foligno and Fabrici d'Acquapendente, both in 1919.Francesca Vannozzi in Andreassi, et al., p. 82.
Barduzzi and the university After winning the competition for a professorship in the University of Siena, unable to reconcile family life with his work as a freelancer in Pisa, he moved to Siena only in 1890, when he was appointed full professor. However, this did not prevent him from finding a favorable environment in Siena, quickly integrating himself into the university and city environment.Carlo Ricci in Andreassi, et al., pp. 19-20. In fact, in 1887 he became an ordinary member of the Accademia dei Fisiocritici, until being elected its president from 1893 to 1896 and also from 1908 until his death.Carlo Ricci in Andreassi, et al., p. 20 In 1892 he was elected councilor of the City of Siena, a position he held until 1908.
In addition to being a professor, he also distinguished himself as an administrator and defender of the University of Siena in the post-unification period, which was marked by a climate of great uncertainty for higher education and the University, speaking of parliamentary provisions such as:
Along these lines, in 1894 he founded the University Union, which he directed for five years, a journal to which professors from all over the peninsula contributed, including Cesare Lombroso, Enrico Morselli and Vittorio Emanuele Orlando, in which he proposed:
The journal expanded rapidly until it gave birth in 1902 to a nationwide magazine, L'Università italiana, published in Bologna and edited by Barduzzi himself and Raffaele Guerrieri.Carlo Ricci in Andreassi, et al., pp. 21-22. Among his other achievements as chancellor of the University of Siena, he coined the university's current historical seal, which was approved by the Consulta Araldica on January 4, 1896.Carlo Ricci in Andreassi, et al., p. 28.
Barduzzi and dermato-venereology Barduzzi officially entered the field of dermatology in 1883 with his appointment as lecturer having already shown his talent for the subject a few years earlier in the two-year period of advanced studies and practice in the discipline in order to obtain the university teaching licence. This degree allowed him to practice under Augusto Michelacci, professor of dermatology, and Pietro Pellizzari, as professor of venereology.Lucio Andreassi, Barduzzi dermato-venereologo, in Andreassi, et al., p. 55.
Barduzzi's early studies focused mainly on syphilis and especially on the problems of its treatment. These studies were also influenced by the scientific activity of Pietro Pellizzari, who had conducted experiments on three voluntary subjects (at that time it was not forbidden in Tuscany to subject, especially condemned prisoners, to experiments of a scientific nature) in order to test whether syphilis could be transmitted by blood. Barduzzi, despite the initial fascination with this theory, which he approached with enthusiasm, understood that the most effective way to stop the spread of syphilis was mainly prophylaxis care and the need to address the problem from a social point of view, since there was no valid therapy at the time.Lucio Andreassi in Andreassi, et al., p. 57. Furthermore, Barduzzi became convinced that in order to defend the population from the rampant contagion of syphilis, dermatovenereologists would have to unite in an association, which was founded in 1885 in Perugia: Barduzzi joined the steering committee as secretary,Lucio Andreassi in Andreassi, et al., p. 58 after being one of the promoters of the statute.Giornale Italiano delle Malattie Veneree e della Pelle, 1984; 19: 189.
He was the promoter in Italy of the use of salvarsan, the arsenical preparation patented by Paul Ehrlich for the treatment of syphilis, sensing the importance of creating a precise protocol for testing the drug and anticipating current pluricentric trials.Lucio Andreassi in Andreassi, et al., pp. 59-62. Prominent among his pupils were Vittorio Mibelli and Pio Colombini; the former achieved great fame even beyond national borders thanks to his description of two new skin diseases, namely Mibelli's angiokeratoma and porokeratosis, while the latter became a professor in Sassari and Modena but failed to continue the master's work.Lucio Andreassi in Andreassi, et al., pp. 59-60.
Barduzzi and hydrology In his early thirties, in 1881, Barduzzi began his experience as a hydrologist with the direction of the Castrocaro Thermal Baths in the province of Forlì, and then in 1885 he temporarily obtained the vacant post of medical director of the San Giuliano Thermal Baths in the province of Pisa, a post he then obtained definitively the following year and which he never left again until the end of his career. In the same year he co-founded and promoted the Italian Medical Association of Hydrology and Climatology along with Scipione Vinaj, Pietro Grocco, Luigi Pagliani, and Luigi Burgonzio.Francesco Pascarella, Barduzzi idrologo, in Andreassi, et al., pp. 65-66 He quickly became one of the leading figures in Italian hydrology and climatology between the 19th and 20th centuries, so much so that he was appointed, among the many offices and positions he held, delegate of the Italian Association of Hydrology and Climatology to the International Congress in Brussels in 1897, president of the Ninth National Congress of Hydrology and Climatology in San Remo in 1908 and in 1910 of the Tenth National Congress of Hydrology, Climatology and Physical Therapy in Salò during which he drew the attention of the audience of scholars to the spread of artificially mineralized waters.Francesco Pascarella in Andreassi, et al., pp. 66-68 His hydrological research unhinges the empiricism of the old and obsolete therapy according to which the beneficial properties of mineral water were directly proportional to the high presence of total dissolved solids and demonstrates how their chemical composition is instead fundamental, considering their acidic, basic elements and all those phenomena that have little or nothing to do with overall mineralization.Francesco Pascarella in Andreassi, et al., pp. 71-72 Barduzzi verified how at the basis of the beneficial properties of the waters of the San Giuliano Baths is the presence of considerable radioactivity, which had already been found by the Italian physicist Angelo Battelli and also confirmed in 1908 by Marie Curie. Beneficial properties found especially in cases of eczema, psoriasis, neurodermatitis, in some varieties of acne and prurigo nodularis and especially in varicose ulcers.Francesco Pascarella in Andreassi, et al., pp. 73, 76-77
Barduzzi vigorously advocated in all his speeches the priority of renewing hydrological studies by combating balneotherapeutic empiricism and the rigorous chemical-physical and clinical study of water sources; he also considered it necessary to supervise with specific regulations the reservoirs with the imposition of frequent chemical and bacteriological analyses. In fact, according to Barduzzi himself, the legislative model to follow is the French one, which had long since regulated the water resources system with specific laws and regulations.Francesco Pascarella in Andreassi, et al., p. 68 He was concerned with crenotherapeutic treatment of skin diseases, but did not neglect other methods of treatment related to crenotherapy such as hydrotherapy, physiotherapy, phototherapy and electrotherapy. He also considered it essential to take care of the water supply, and in particular he dealt with the case of Siena, in which the water system could provide 38 liters of water per person per day, very little compared to the minimum then set at 150 liters per person, believing it essential to follow the idea of Rudolf Virchow, who considered a consistent water supply fundamental to the economic development of a city.Francesco Pascarella in Andreassi, et al., p. 76
Barduzzi and the history of medicine
There are basically three crucial moments in Barduzzi's life as a historian of medicine: the establishment of the Italian Society of the History of Medicine in 1907 (he became its first president), the founding of the Journal of Critical History of Medical and Natural Sciences as the official organ of the society itself, and the establishment of the Chair of the History of Medicine in Siena in 1922.Francesca Vannozzi, Barduzzi storico della medicina, in Andreassi, et al., p. 81 He is the author of numerous publications on personalities in the history of Italian and European medicine, among whom are Andreas Vesalius, Galileo Galilei, Leonardo da Vinci, Evangelista Torricelli, Vincenzo Chiarugi, Francesco Puccinotti and many others; he also devoted himself with passion to the collection of news about the University of Siena, an effort that took him about twelve years to complete because of the great difficulties he encountered in finding the necessary documents. His most important publications in this regard are: Cenni storici sull'Università di Siena (1900), Documenti per la storia dell'Università di Siena (1900), Di alcune vicende storiche moderne dello studio senese (1902), Cenni storici sull'origine dell'Università di Siena (1910), Brevi notizie sulla R. Università di Siena (1912).Francesca Vannozzi in Andreassi, et al., p. 83