Background
Marcus Gerbezius was born on October 24, 1658, near Stičwna, Slovenia. He was born into a family in modest circumstances.
Slovenia
Marcus Gerbezius
Via Zamboni, 33, 40126 Bologna BO, Italy
Marcus Gerbezius obtained the doctorate in philosophy and medicine at the University of Bologna in 1684.
Via Zamboni, 33, 40126 Bologna BO, Italy
Marcus Gerbezius obtained the doctorate in philosophy and medicine at the University of Bologna in 1684.
Marcus Gerbezius was born on October 24, 1658, near Stičwna, Slovenia. He was born into a family in modest circumstances.
Marko first studied philosophy in Ljubljana, then medicine in Vienna, Padua, and Bologna, where he obtained the doctorate in philosophy and medicine in 1684.
After returning to his native country Gerzebius was named chief physician of the province of Carniola and became the most sought-after practitioner in Ljublijana. In 1712-1713 he was president of the Academia Operasorum in Ljubljana, which played quite a large role in the cultural development of Slovenia.
Gerbezius published the first detailed observation of an aurichuloventricular block in 1692. It occurred in a ninety-year-old woman suffering from spells of dizziness and finting. Gerbezius described the particulars of her pulse so well that it is possible to make a retrospective diagnosis of the Adams-Stokes syndrome. In 1717 Gerbezius observed two patients afflicted with the same illness - one with a complete and permanent block, the other with an intermittent block. George Cheyne described this syndrome in 1733, as did G.B. Morgagni in 1761. It must be emphasized that Morgagni cited Gerbezius’ publications with praise and recognized their priority.
Gerbezius also observed hypertrophy of the myocardium, exanthemaous typhus, malaria, removal of the spleen, mercury poisoning among miners, the harmful effect of wine on children, and the treatment of biliary disorders with mineral waters. In a series of publications he set forth, year by year, the relationships between meteorological and terrestrial factors, on the one hand, and clinical and epidemilogical aspects of diseases current in Ljubljana, on the other. He confirmed the majority of Thomas Sydenham’s conclusions and, emphasizing the importance of social factors, gave them even broader meaning.
Gerbezius also carried out experimental investigations on the physical and chemical properites of the air and on fermentation. In his view, alcoholic and acetic fermentation were chemical processes induced by certain minuscule particles, “volatile bodies,” which escape from organic matter and are found suspended in the atmosphere.
Although attracted to Bologna by the teaching of Marcello Malpighi, Gerbezius was not converted to the iatromechanist doctrine nor was he fully aware of the proper importance of the orientation toward anatomy of contemporary Italian medicine. His own views are a mixture of Dutch and German iatrochemical ideas with English neo-Hippocratic ideas. Gerbezius stressed the importance of a minute clinical examination devoid of preconceptions.
Barely four years following receipt of his doctorate Gerbezius was admitted to the Academia Leopoldina Naturae Curisorum, to which he sent, from 1689 until his death, a great many medical, meteorological, and zoological observations. Gerbezius was also a founding member of the Academia Operasorum in Ljubljana.
