CAMBIERI ED IL MORBO DI SCHERLIEVO - Inizio della venereologia a Fiume
Keywords:
History of medicine, 18th, 19th century, venereology, Cambieri, Škrljevo disease, mercury, Civic Hospital and Poorhouse, Rijeka, CroatiaAbstract
G. B. Cambieri was the most important physician in the Rijeka region in the first half of the 19th century. He was born near Pavia, and came to Rijeka in 1797. Soon he became the chief town physician. Most of his activity was directed against an infectious disease tha appeared near Rijeka in the village of Škrljevo at the end of the 18th century. He described it as a disease in its own right, and termed it morbus Scherlievo, that is, the disease of Škrljevo. He wrote a few articles about the disease, which was a form of syphilis, and treated it with mercury preparations. He experimented with new therapies and even self-inoculation. He also took the initiative to open a new Civic Hospital with a Department of Syphilidology. After his death in 1838, he left all his money to the Hospital of the Holy Spirit of Rijeka. His work was of primary importance for the beginning of venerology in the Rijeka region.
