[1] Despite his tutelage under an ophthalmologist and his dissertation (reworked and published the following year) furthering research in ophthalmology, Forlanini elected to end his pursuit of that specialty and instead returned home to Milan, where he secured a position at the Maggiore hospital in 1871.

While in these roles, Forlanini treated and observed a number of patients with tuberculosis, as the disease was a major health crisis in his lifetime.

Pus and air would flood the pleural cavity, which put pressure on the already struggling lungs in addition to exposing them to further infection.

[8] The University of Pavia offered Forlanini a provisional teaching position instructing in special medical pathology in 1898, for which he returned to the city.

In following years, his technique was criticized for the procedure's severe complications, which at times included emphysema and cerebral embolism as noted by Forlanini himself.

[5][14] His lifelong friend and fellow professor at the University of Pavia, Camillo Golgi, nominated him three times for the Nobel Prize in Medicine, remarking that the invention of pneumothorax was "of great benefit to humanity".

[15] During this time, Forlanini's health rapidly declined; he experienced severe migraines and an abdominal malignancy, possibly a carcinoma of the pancreas.

[1] From the early stages of his career, Forlanini's interest in tuberculosis has been a recurring factor in his professional and academic life, leading him to the invention of the artificial pneumothorax.

However, after a failed attempt at reproducing the experiment in a human subject the idea of collapse therapy was abandoned and it would only resurface several years later.

[1] When Forlanini first started exploring the idea of using an artificial pneumothorax as a treatment for tuberculosis, he wasn't aware of Carson's experiments (his work remained unnoticed until 1909).

His interest in the study of pulmonary diseases developed while he was working as a newly graduated medical student in the chronically ill division of the Ospedale Maggiore in Milan.

In his effort to build said device, he was aided by his brother Enrico Forlanini (a skilled engineer and one of the pioneers of air flight).

With the assistance of his brother, Carlo Forlanini designed and constructed a simple device capable of administering gases intrapleurally.

[1] In the year following his experiments (1895) Forlanini reported the successful outcome of his artificial pneumothorax in the journal "Gazzetta Medica di Torino".

This allowed him to present an authoritative report on his artificial pneumothorax during the Seventh International Congress on Tuberculosis in Rome (in 1912), for which he received great praise.

[15] They put forward several explanations, trying to convince the prize jury of why Forlanini should be seen as "the person who shall have made the most important discovery within the domain of physiology or medicine".

[15] When Forlanini died in 1918, his many pupils and admirers, both Italian and foreign, wished to create a suitable living memorial to their master.

The building is located in the middle of a 28-hectare (69-acre) park because, before the discovery of anti-TB drugs with bactericidal and bacteriostatic activity, TB was treated with bed rest in a hygienic and well ventilated place.