Antonio Pacchioni
First attending the Santo Spirito in Sassia Hospital, he was an assistant physician at the Ospedale della Conzolazione from May 26, 1690 to June 3, 1693, and then remained for six years in Tivoli as the town doctor.
[2][3][4] Pacchioni was a "short man, with oblong face, vivid eye and a rather melancholic temperament" Following the customs of his time, he initially studied philosophy and only later turned to medicine, demonstrating a natural talent for anatomical dissection.
After moving to Rome, he first attended the Ospedaledi S. Spirito in Sassia and then successfully applied for a position as assistant physician at the Ospedale della Consolazione (May 26, 1690), well known at that time for emergency medicine.
Further evidence of his merits is the deferential friendship he shared with great men such as Giambattista Morgagni (1682-1771), Malpighi (1627- 1694), and especially with Lancisi (1654-1720), who requested the collaboration of Pacchioni in the preparation of his famous De Motu Cordis et Aneurismatibus (1728) and in the first edition of the Tabulae Anatomicae (1714) collected by Bartolomeo Eustachio (1500-1574).
The year 1705 was a special time in Pacchioni's life: he was appointed head physician at the ancient Ospedaledi S. Giovanni in Laterano, and published the original description of arachnoid granulations in his Dissertatio Epistolaris de Glandulis Conglobatis Durae Meningis Humanae.
Following Malpighi's teachings, he made use of the microscope, an advanced technology of his time, and systematically treated the anatomical specimens by original techniques of maceration into "... strong, sour, salted, sweet, and oily fluids .... ".
For example, in the Dissertatio Epistotaris..., Pacchioni pointed out how arachnoid villi swell "... to the size of a millet seed... " after dura is "...soaked for a month first into plain water and then into vinegar..." (recommending frequent renewal of the bath in order to avoid smell!
In 1705, Pacchioni dedicated to Professor Luca Schrok (a German colleague from Augsburg) the Dissertatio Epistolaris de Glandulis Conglobatis Durae Meningis Hurnanae, indeque Ortis Lymphaticis and Piam Meningem produclis.
[11] One of his popular papers is written in Latin and illustrated with two figures and remarkable for its scientific rigor, careful report of materials and methods, and frequent quotation of up-to-date international literature.
In a recent study, Go, et al., ~ using enzyme ultracnytochemistry, detected Na+/K + adenosine triphosphatase activity on cap cells of arachnoid villi; they proposed that this biochemical mechanism could contribute to CSF absorption.
It is remarkable to note that, if this single observation is confirmed, we may have to look at arachnoid villi not simply as hydrostatic pressure-gated valves, but as actual secreting structures: that is, as glands or "glandulae," as Antonio Pacchioni suggested three centuries ago.
