Tuesday, May 10, 2011

BODY PARTS NAMED AFTER ITALIANS

 

FALLOPIAN TUBES

The pair of tubes that conduct the egg from the ovary to the uterus in the female. They are named after Gabriel Fallopius (1523—62), who spent much of his adult life as a professor of anatomy at Pisa and Padua (early attempts to practise as a surgeon resulted in the deaths of several patients and Fallopius decided that an academic career was a safer option). He was the first person to coin the word ‘vagina’ and also invented a kind of contraceptive sheath which he tested out on more than a thousand men in what was, perhaps, the first medical trial of condom efficacy.

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