Domenico Cotugno

Domenico Cotugno was an Italian physician and anatomist, born in Ruvo di Puglia in 1736 and died in Naples in 1822. After studying at the University of Naples and taking his degree at Salerno, he worked at the Ospedale degli Incurabili in Naples, became professor of surgery there in 1761, and later taught anatomy for about thirty years. In 1808 he became royal physician to the King of Naples. His 1761 dissertation on the aqueducts of the human inner ear described the vestibule, the semicircular canals and the cochlea, and showed that the labyrinth contains fluid. He is also credited with identifying the cerebrospinal fluid in 1774, and wrote a classic monograph on sciatic neuralgia. He studied smallpox and worried about the control of pulmonary tuberculosis. Several terms carry his name, including the old name liquor Cotunni for cerebrospinal fluid, and a hospital in Naples is named after him.