133, [3] pp. Italian text. A work of anatomical medicine by the 18th-19th century physician who studied at the University of Naples and the Salerno medical school, worked as a surgeon at the Neapolitan Hospital for Incurables, taught anatomy for thirty years, and later became the personal physician to the King of Naples. In 1761 Cotugno published for distribution to friends a plate that traced the course of the nasopalatine nerve, which is responsible for sneezing. Antonio Scarpa acknowledged his priority in knowledge of this nerve. In the same year his anatomical dissertation De aquaeductibus auris humane internae, following the work of Guichard Joseph Duverney and Antonio Maria Valsalva and anticipating that of Hermann von Helmholtz, described the vestibule, semicircular canals, and cochlea of the osseus labyrinth of the internal ear, demonstrated the existence of the labyrinthine fluid, and formulated a theory of resonance and hearing. Cotugno wrote a classic monograph on sciatic neuralgia, and is also credited the discovery of the cerebrospinal fluid in 1774. He investigated smallpox, was deeply concerned with controlling pulmonary tuberculosis, and exemplified to many students the true investigative and selfless spirit in anatomy and medicine. The Ospedale Domenico Cotugno, hospital in Napoli is named for him. From Garrison-Morton entries (1549 & 1382) for his other works: "Cotugno is sometimes accredited with the discovery of the “liquor Cotunnii”, the labyrinthine fluid, first noted by Pyl in 1742. He did, however, make important contributions to the knowledge on the structure and function of the ear, including the discovery of the aural aqueducts. The naso-palatine nerve and the columns in the osseous spiral lamina are named after him." and "Cotugno published a classic description of sciatica, which is useful even today. He recognized two types – arthritic and nervous; the latter has been called “Cotugno’s disease”, and his book is confined to that type. It includes the first clear description of the association of edema with proteinuria. Valsalva in 1692 briefly mentioned the cerebrospinal fluid, but “Cotugno was the first to describe the fluid surrounding the spinal cord and to suggest that it was in continuity with the ventricular and cerebral subarachnoid fluids. However, his concept of the cerebral and spinal fluid, which is the beginning of its modern physiology, remained in obscurity until rediscovery by Magendie some 60 years later” (Clarke & O’Malley). For more information regarding this book and a translation of the section dealing with the cerebrospinal fluid, see the article by H. R. Viets in Bull. Inst. Hist. Med., 1935, 3, 701-38. English translation, London, 1775."
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