Domenico Morichini

Morichini was born in Civita d'Antino, L'Aquila, to farmer Anselmo and Domitilla Moratti.

Educated in Sora and later Rome, he received a medical degree in 1792 and became physician, working at the hospital of Santo Spirito.

The republic fell in 1799 and he was readmitted by Pope Pius VII as professor at the University of Sapienza where he served until 1833.

Several people repeated the experiment, some confirmed it including Humphry Davy[5] (who was a patient of Morichini in 1828), Georges Cuvier, Andreas von Baumgartner and Mary Somerville, while others questioned the findings.

[6] Morichini fell ill shortly after his retirement, suffered from a stroke, and died in Rome.