Giulio Bizzozero and Aldo Perroncito: Reform and Regeneration

In the second half of the nineteenth century, Giulio Bizzozero was the central figure of the modernization of the biomedical studies in Turin and perhaps in whole Italy. Making discoveries with important medical implications and publishing research papers gaining international praise, he was able to withstand the attacks of the local medical hierarchies and succeeded to establish a new medical philosophy and a prolific school of experimental and cellular pathology. He published only two co-authored papers on nerves, yet exerted a considerable influence on the neurohistological works of his students and collaborators, among them Camillo Golgi and his grandnephew Aldo Perroncito. The essay will first illustrate Bizzozero’s efforts to reform the medical research and education in Turin, and then briefly sketch his main scientific achievements. The second part treats Perroncito’s path-breaking investigations on the regeneration of the peripheral nerve fibres.