HISTORICAL NOTE

Abstract

First of all, let me explain why we are now writing about Sterzi. Approximately two years ago I (A.R.) received a message from Prof. Colin Wendell Smith, the secretary of the FCAT, who happens to live in the antipodal (for me) island of Tasmania, asking me if I could find him the article on subcutaneous tissue written by an Italian professor named Sterzi. This article had been mentioned by Prof. DiDio during one FCAT meeting and Prof. Wendell Smith had already unsuccessfully tried to obtain it via the usual library system. Since I was aware that Sterzi had been one of my predecessors in the Anatomy Chair in Cagliari, it was easy for me to send a copy of the article to Prof. Wendell Smith, who was surprised to hear that Sterzi had been working in the antipodal (for him) island of Sardinia and so was indirectly associated with me. In order to provide him with an English summary, I had to read the 172page article myself. I was greatly impressed by the rigorous discussion of previous reports and by the amount of new findings obtained also through a comparative anatomical/embryological approach. Prompted by this, we became interested in Sterzi’s life and scientific achievements, being manifest that the studies on the subcutaneous tissue and some others such as that on the endolymphatic sac, though important and superbly carried out, had been just a parenthesis in his production devoted almost exclusively to neuroanatomy and the history of anatomy. Favaro (1921) maintains, in fact, that Sterzi made them mainly to show his critics that his production was not monothematic.