Background

Cotugno was born on January 29, 1736, in Ruvo di Puglia, Italy, the son of Michele Cotugno and his second wife, Chiara Assalemme.

Education

Cotugno underwent physical and economic hardships to get an education. He was sent to nearby Molfetta for training in Latin, and soon found his natural bent in medicine and continued his studies from 1753 at the University of Naples, and in 1756 graduated from Salerno medical school. He received his doctorate in philosophy and physics in 1755, and became an assistant at the Ospedale degli Incurabili (Neapolitan Hospital for Incurables).

Career

Cotugno found his natural bent in medicine and continued his studies, often in straitened circumstances, at the University of Naples and the Ospedale degli Incurabili. To these two institutions Cotugno devoted the greater part of his life. In 1765 he made trips to Rome and northern Italy to visit libraries and men of science, including Giovanni Battista Morgagni; and in 1789 he traveled to Austria and Germany as physician to Ferdinand IV, king of Naples. In a period of political upheaval in the kingdom of Naples, he did not swerve from medicine.

Apart from medicine, in which his reputation was such that, the saying went, no one in Naples could die without a passport from him, Cotugno’s greatest contributions to science resulted from his fusing of anatomy and physiology to uncover the secrets of the human body. They were made early in his career when at the Ospedale degli Incurabili he had almost constant opportunities for dissection. In 1761 he published for distribution to friends a plate that traced the course of the nasopalatine nerve, which is responsible for sneezing; Antonio Scarpa acknowledged his priority in knowledge of this nerve. In the same year his anatomical dissertation De aquaeductibus auris humanae internae, following the work of Guichard Joseph Duverney and Antonio Maria Valsalva and anticipating that of Hermann Ludwig von Helmholtz, described the vestibule, semicircular canals, and cochlea of the osseous labyrinth of the internal ear, demonstrated the existence of the labyrinthine fluid, and formulated a theory of resonance and hearing. In his commentary De ischiade nervosa (1764) Cotugno differentiated between arthritic and nervous sciatica, concluded that the sciatic nerve is responsible for the latter, and in discussing it described extensively for the first time the cerebrospinal fluid. He also described the coagulation of albumin that occurs when the urine of persons afflicted with dropsy is exposed to heat. In addition, Cotugno investigated smallpox, was deeply concerned with controlling pulmonary tuberculosis, and exemplified to many students the true investigative and selfless spirit in anatomy and medicine. Medals were struck in his honor in 1824; in 1931, for the thirty-seventh congress of the Società Italiana di Medicina Interna; and in 1961 (a replica of the 1824 medal), for the tenth International Congress of Rhematology.

Achievements

• Cotugno wrote a classic monograph on sciatic neuralgia, and is also credited the discovery of the cerebrospinal fluid in 1774. He investigated smallpox, was deeply concerned with controlling pulmonary tuberculosis, and exemplified to many students the true investigative and selfless spirit in anatomy and medicine.

Works

More photos

• book

  • De Ischiade Nervosa Commentarius

    (French Edition)

    1764
  • De Aquaeductibus Auris Humanae Internae

    (Latin Edition)

    1761

Personality

An outstanding example of the physician-humanist, Cotugno was devoted to books and accumulated a large library; was well versed in art, architecture, numismatics, and antiquities; and had great facility in the Latin language.

Connections

In 1794, Cotugno married Ippolita Ruffo, duchess of Bagnara.

Father:

Michele Cotugno

Mother:

Chiara Assalemme

Spouse:

Ippolita Ruffo

References

• Dictionary of Scientific Biography Volume 3
  1971
• Elogio storico del cavalier D. Domenico Cotugno Italian Edition