Saggio sulle malattie degli occhi
Saggio di osservazioni e d'esperienze sulle principali malattie degli occhi
A Treatise on the Principal Diseases of the Eyes
Antonio Scarpa studied at the University of Padua, where he served as assistant and personal secretary to Morgagni, the master of pathological anatomy. After ten years as professor of anatomy and clinical surgery at the University of Modena, Scarpa joined the medical faculty at Pavia and served as chair of anatomy for the rest of his professional life. Scarpa wrote important works in otolaryngology, orthopedics, ophthalmology, neuroanatomy, and general surgery. He was the first to demonstrate cardiac innervation and to accurately describe the pathological anatomy of congenital club-foot. He also introduced the concept of arteriosclerosis, identified "Scarpa's triangle" of the thigh, and provided the first detailed description of sliding hernia of the large bowel. Scarpa's Saggio di malattie degli occhi was the first ophthalmology text published in Italian. The book earned Scarpa the title of "father of Italian ophthalmology". Scarpa described the treatment of cataract by depression rather than extraction, noted his procedure for making artificial pupils, and suggested a surgical treatment of dropsy of the eyeball. This is a first edition of Scarpa's work published in Pavia in 1801.
