When he was done, clinicians and scientists alike could trace the symptoms they saw back to common origins. Morgagni showed beyond any doubt that specific disorders cause suffering and death. We find a ruptured appendix, syphilis of the aorta, and epidural hematoma. A lifetime of compassion and clear thinking lies behind this chamber of horrors. A great change in medical thinking unfolds, case by case, as we read.
Human ingenuity takes many forms.
Morgagni's genius lay in a change of perception. He gave medicine a new way to see illness. What he did was radical and revolutionary, but patient and methodical at the same time. Historians can usually find feet of clay, or a mean streak, in heroes. But not Morgagni.