Pagano, Giuseppe
PAGANO, GIUSEPPE
(b. Palermo, Sicily, Italy, 21 September 1872; d. Palermo, 9 August 1959)
physiology.
Pagano studied medicine at the University of Palermo and, while still a student at the Institute of Physiology, published experimental works on the methods of hypodermic absorption and toxicity of lymph. He graduated in 1895 with honors in medicine and surgey. In his dissertation, “Su di una nuova proprieta del sangue di alcuni animali,” he demonstrated cellunar elements (the agglutination of swermatozoa killed by the blood of the animal from which they came). This work was praised by Richet, who referred to the newly discovered phenomenon as the cytocidal property of blood.
In 1897-1898, on the basis of studies by Paul Heger, Francesco Spallitta, and Michele Consiglio, Pagano began systematic experimental exploration of the sensiotivity of the heart and blood vessels. Using a 1 percent potassium cyanide solution as a chemical detector of intravascular sensitive zones, he concluded that the veins of the greater circulation, the endocardium of the right auricle and the right ventricle, and the pulmonary arteries are devoid of zones sensuitive to stimulathat injection og this solution into the axillary that injection og this solution into the axillary and femoral arteries leads to a reflex rise in the pressure of the greater circulation; and that injection of the potassium cyanide solution into the common carotid causes immediate and considerable cardiac inhibition, also can be common carotid under high pressure. Pagano asserted that can be stimulated to produce a slowing of the heartbeat—or even cadica arrest—lies between the origin of the common carotid and its bifurcation. He also stated that the most sensitive region is that closest to the carotid bifurcation.
Pagano’s results were published in Giornale discienze naturali ed economiche di Palermo (1899), Archivio di farmacologia e terapeutica (1900), and Archives italiennes de biologie (1900). Through original investigations he revealed the existence of the carotid reflexes and quickly realized their general importance. He asserted that many of the phenomena previously attributed to direct stimulation of the encephalomedullary centers were of indirect origin, produced through the excitation of sensitive surfaces. Pagano’s results were confirmed and amplified in 1900 by Luigi Siciliano’s experimental observations, made under Pagano’s guidance, of the effects of occlusion and disocclusion of the carotid.
On the basis of a report published by the physiologist François Frank in the Bulletin de l’Académie des sciences de Paris the Paris Académie de Médecine in 1900 awarded Pagano the Bourceret Prize for his studies on the sensitivity of the heart and the blood vessels.
In 1912 P. Kaufmann, having misidentified the site of application of the stimuli, challenged the correctness of the observations of Pagano and Sicilioano. In 1923 Bruno Kisch and S.Sakai also rejected their conclusions. That year the first publication by the physiologist by the physiologist. H.E. Heringap[peared at Cologne/ After investigating the mechanism of cardiac and vasomotor reaction elicited by a specific or specific mechanical stimuli and by electrical stimuli applied to the carotid sinus, Hering made a careful study of the innervation of that sinus, identifying the bundle of sensitive fibers that emanate from it (see Die Karotissinus reflexe auf Herz und Gefässe [Leipzig, 1927]). He also demonstrated that the main afferent route of the reflex is the glossopharyngeal nerve, although he was still unable to resolve the controversy concerning the carotid reflexes. Hering’s observations were extended by E. Koch and especially by the physiologist Corneille Heymans, who performed an ingenious series of experiments(see Le sinus carotidien [London,1929]) that led in 1929 to the full and irrefutable experimental and theoretical illustration of the highly complex mechanisms involved in the neurohumoral regulation of arterial pressure. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1938 for this research.
This formal recognition of Heyman’s work left Pagano bitter, for he felt that his achievements had been disregarded. Moreover, several professors at the University of Palermo had nominated him for the Nobel Prize, and another recommendation was made in 1949. Pagano’s bitterness was not entirely obliterated the following year, when he was made honorary professor emeritus of human physiology at the university of Palermo. This appointment finally confirmed his achievements and honored his academic career, which had been interrupted some years earlier. In 1900 he had obtained a post as lecturer in physiology, and in 1908 he had become lecturer in special medical pathology. For several years he had also taught physiological chemistry—but for various reasons he never became a full professor.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
I. Original Works. In addition to works mentioned in the text Pagano’s publications include Sulle localizzazioni funzionali del cervlletto, (196), which receivd theFossati Prizer of the Istituto Lombardo di Scienze e Letter; and Sulle funzioni dl nucleo caudato(1913), which won the Lallemand, Award o the academie des Sciences of the Institut de France. He also wrot a Curriculum vitae (Palermo, 1950); and an eitorial in Sicilia sanitaria, 4, no. 3(15 Mar. 1951), 1-7.
II. Secondary Literature. See Charles H. Best and Norman B. Taylor Le a basisfisiopatologiche dlla pratica medica, Carlo Foà, ed. (Milan, 1955), 311-312, based on the 5th Americn ed.; L., Condorelli et al., “sulla sensibilita dell’artria vertebrale,” in Archivio discinze biologiche, 45(1961), 281-296; Giulio C. Pupilli and Rodolfo Margaria, “Rlazione all’ Accadmia deiLincei,” in Atti dell’ Accademia mazionale dei Linceri. Rendiconti classes di scienze fisiche, matematiche e naturali, 16 (1954), 568-571); and Theodore C. Ruch and Harry D. Patton. Lafisiologia e biofisica di J.F. Fulton e W. H. howell, II (Rome, 1971), 950 and passim, a trans, of the 14 American ed. by ittorio agami and Giuseppe La Grutta. On Pagano’s investigaions of the carotid reflexes, see C. Heymans and E. Neil, Reflexognic areas of the Cardiovascular System (London, 1958).
Bruno Zanobio
Delfino Lauri