Panizza, Bartolomeo

After graduating in Surgery in Padua, Bartolomeo Panizza (Vicenza, 1785 – Pavia, 1867) practiced first in Bologna and then in Florence. Later on he also graduated in Medicine in Pavia; here he was taught by Antonio Scarpa, whom he succeeded as chair of Anatomy.

Panizza was a remarkable anatomist. His name will be forever associated to Comparative Anatomy research of the human lymphatic system and of the classes of vertebrates.

His major discovery was the vision cortical centre: by observing degenerations obtained by removing eyeballs from various animals and by associating the lesion of some encephalon areas, he was able to attribute the role of arrival station for visual stimuli to the posterior region of the brain.

This constituted the first demonstration of cerebral localization of a physic function.