Girolamo Fracastoro

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Image:Fracastoro.gif Girolamo Fracastoro (Fracastorius) (1478‑August 8, 1553) was an Italian physician, scholar (in mathematics and geography), poet and atomist.

Born in Verona, later educated at Padua, he lived and practised in his hometown. In 1546 he proposed that epidemic diseases are caused by transferable seedlike entities that could transmit infection by direct or indirect contact or even without contact over long distances. In his writing, the "seeds" of disease seem to refer to chemicals rather than to any living entities; thus while his theory is often confused as a precursor to modern germ theory, it is more properly a separate one. His theory remained influential for nearly three centuries, before being displaced by germ theory.

The name for syphilis is derived from his poem about a shepherdress named Sifilo from 1530 which can be regarded as the first treatise on the disease. The poem suggests using mercury and "guaiaco" as a cure. His 1546 book (De Contagione -- "On Contagion") also gave the first description for typhus.

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