FABRICIUS, or Fabricio, Jerome, surnamed Acquapendente, from his having been a native of the episcopal city of that name in Italy, where he was born in 1537. His parents, though poor, were desirous to give their son an excellent education, and with this view sent him to Padua, where the young Fabricius soon found powerful protectors to assist in the cultivation of his talents. After completing his course of philosophy, he applied himself to medicine, which he studied under the celebrated Fallopius, and soon became the most distinguished pupil of that learned professor, whom he afterwards succeeded. Fallopius having died in 1562, Fabricius, then only twenty-five years of age, was at first employed merely to give anatomical demonstrations; but he discharged this duty with so much zeal and ability that, in 1565, he was formally promoted to the chair of surgery, whilst that of anatomy, which had hitherto been considered as merely a dependence or accessory of the other, was declared primary in favour of Fabricius, to whom were also assigned very considerable appointments. And to these preferences the senators of Venice added the highest distinctions which it was in their power to bestow. They granted him privileges not less extraordinary than flattering, gave him precedence of the professors of philosophy, named him citizen of Venice, honoured him with a statue and a
gold chain, decorated him with the order of knight of St Fabricius. Mark, constructed a superb anatomical theatre for his accommodation, and assigned him a liberal retiring allowance, with the right of naming his successor. Fabricius practised his profession with much dignity and with rare disinterestedness. Persons of high rank, who were indebted to him for the re-establishment of their health, made up by rich presents for the fees which the generous physician refused; and these Fabricius collected in a cabinet, on the door of which he caused to be inscribed the words Lucri neglecti lucrum. He possessed a beautiful country-house, situated on the delightful banks of the Brenta, and still known by the name of Montagnuola d'Acquapendente, where, sound in body and mind, loaded with riches, generally esteemed, and enjoying a brilliant reputation, he calculated on spending a happy old age; but his expectations were cruelly disappointed, and his repose was disturbed by envy and ingratitude. It is even said that on more than one occasion he had to defend himself against violent attempts on his life, which even in his own house was not secure. Relations, on whom he had never ceased to lavish favours, unworthily betrayed his confidence, and are suspected, not without reason, of having abridged his days by means of poison. Having attained the age of eighty-two, he died suddenly, in an agony of vomiting, on the 21st May 1619, leaving to his niece a fortune of two hundred thousand ducats, and to the republic of letters the following works, which are much esteemed: De Visione, Voce, Auditu, Venice, 1600, in fol.; De formato Fatu liber, Venice, 1600, in fol.; De Venarum ostiolis, Padua, 1603, in fol.; De Locutione et ejus instrumentis, Venice, 1603, in 4to; De Brutorum loquela, Padua, 1603, in fol.; De Musculi artificio ac Ossium dearticulationibus, Vicenza, 1614, in 4to; De Motu locali Animalium secundum totum, Padua, 1618, in 4to; De Respiratione et ejus Instrumentis libri duo, Padua, 1615, in 4to; De Gula, Ventriculo, Intestinis, Padua, 1618, in 4to; and also, De totius Animalis integumentis, Padua, 1618, in 4to. These different fragments were collected and printed by Bohn, with a preface, under the title of Opera omni Anatomica et Physiologica hactenus variis locis ac formis edita, nunc vero certo ordine digesta, et in unum volumen redacta, Leipzig, 1687, in fol. But the Leyden edition, published in 1738, by Bernard-Siegfried Albinus, is preferred to that of Bohn, as containing a life of the author, and the prefaces of the different treatises, which Bohn had unaccountably suppressed. All the writings of Fabricius are truly classical, and fully justify the high reputation of their author. His style is pure, and even elegant; the language of Hippocrates was as familiar to him as that of Celsus; and lucid order pervades all his writings. In regularity of plan and clear luminous method he is unsurpassed. "On a reproché à ce grand chirurgien trop de timidité dans l'exercice de son art, et pourtant nous le voyons," says his French biographer, "pratiquer et perfectionner le trépan, employer avec autant de hardiesse que de talent le bistouri, l'aiguille, le trois-quarts, la rugine et même le fer rouge, quoi qu'en dise Severino. Haller, qui, certes, ne le juge pas avec bienveillance, est forcé de lui rendre justice sur ces divers points." In a word, Fabricius was one of the greatest ornaments of the university of Padua, and one of the most celebrated anatomists and surgeons of the sixteenth century. (J. B.—E.)