BOTAL, or BOTALLI, LIONARDO, a celebrated physician, was a native of Asti in Piedmont, and flourished in the latter part of the sixteenth century. After studying under Fallopius he went to France, where he was appointed chief physician to Charles IX., and also to the Duke of Alençon, whom he accompanied to England. Subsequently he was physician to Henry III. Botalli, relying on the authority of Hippocrates, Galen, and the Arabian physicians, carried the practice of blood-letting to an extent that occasioned much animadversion, and perhaps with justice. He made some valuable contributions, however, to the science. The best editions of his several medical and surgical works is that published by Van Hoorne at Leyden, 1660, 8vo.
1 "Egotism and vanity," says he, in his Letter published in 1785, "are the indigenous plants of my mind: they distinguish it. I may prune their luxuriance, but I must not entirely clear it of them: for then I should be no longer as I am, and perhaps there might be something not so good."