Giuseppe Bastianelli

He then moved to the Sapienza University of Rome where he directed l'Istituto di Malariologia, the Institute of Malarial studies dedicated to Ettore Marchiafava, where he worked until he died.

Giuseppe Bastianelli attended the Medicine faculty at the University of Rome, and he explored with diligence the subjects of physics and chemistry but especially of physiology, soon becoming a student of the physiologist Jacob Moleschott, with whom he started interesting investigations on intestinal juices, which were unfortunately interrupted then for lack of means.

In 1891, at twenty-nine years old, Bastianelli earned the title of primary doctor in the Ospedale di Santo Spirito in Sassia Rome, where he worked alongside the physicians Angelo Celli, Ettore Marchiafava and Amico Bignami, especially in the field of the physiopathology of malaria.

"Con Bastianelli possiamo ben dire che scompare dalla scuola medica romana un grande scienziato e dalla società un uomo probo ed onesto che meritatamente fu chiamato ad occupare un seggio nel Senato italiano" [2]Giuseppe Bastianelli was then awarded the nomination of senator in 1939, due to his admirable scientific accomplishments, and he was able to get the recognition he deserved for his excellence in both the medical and social field.

Bastianelli dedicated himself to a long series of researches on the various clinical forms of malaria, a life-threatening disease that represented one of the most serious issues of the social medicine of his time and that claimed many human victims in some areas close to Rome, where himself lived.

[5] Bastianelli and Bignami worked on anopheles that were caught and sent to them by Grassi and fed with the blood of malarici, allowing them to finally obtain the development of the parasite: they could therefore describe all the phases of the sporogonic cycle of Plasmodium Vivax from the Cocists stage of 42 hours until the formation and liberation of the sporozoites, and they presented their report on the subject to the Accademia dei Lincei on December the 4th 1898.

[7] Between 1891 and 1892, Bastianelli dedicated himself to the study of the function of leukocytes in the blood, concluding that circulating mononucleated cells behave in the same way as the fixed elements of the splenic and medullary pulp with which they share the morphological significance: an observation that anticipated the concept of the reticuloendothelial system, which was established only some years later.

The method became established and was followed by numerous doctors; practical teaching was supplemented by a few theoretical lessons, real essays on anatomy, physiology, physics and chemistry applied to sick people.