Guido Baccelli

Life & Legacy

Guido Baccelli (25 November 1830 – 10 January 1916) was an Italian physician and statesman. One of the most renowned Italian physicians of the late 19th century, he was Minister of Education of the then young Kingdom of Italy for six times and once Minister of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce, for a total period of almost ten years, between 1881 and 1903. He was a teacher to Augusto Murri. Together with Italian surgeon Francesco Durante, Baccelli promoted the construction of the Policlinico Umberto I in Rome.
The fundamental feature of his teaching was anatomopathological and clinical at one time;he alternated lessons on the sick with lessons on the corpse, so that students could have an exact view of the progress of diseases, and at the same time the anatomical damage they induce.
His concept of clinical anatomism ("The modern clinic" he used to repeat "is a school of living anatomy") always found practical application to the patient's bed, in the approach given by his school to the study of diseases and was largely comforted by the brilliant results achieved in semeiotics and therapy.
Of the clinical work of the Baccelli are first to remember the flattering successes obtained by the bold endovenous introduction of quinine salts in the treatment of malaria, and that of corrosive sublimated (Bichloride of mercury) in the treatment of rebellious syphilis.