An Interactive Annotated World Bibliography of Printed and Digital Works in the History of Medicine and the Life Sciences from Circa 2000 BCE to 2022 by Fielding H. Garrison (1870-1935), Leslie T. Morton (1907-2004), and Jeremy M. Norman (1945- ) Traditionally Known as “Garrison-Morton”

15961 entries, 13944 authors and 1935 subjects. Updated: March 22, 2024

FONTANA, Felice

2 entries
  • 1485

Ricerche de motu del iride.

Lucca: Giusta, 1765.

An investigation of how and why the iris contracts. See P.K. Knoefel, Felice Fontana: life and works, Trento, [1984], See also No.2103.



Subjects: OPHTHALMOLOGY › Physiology of Vision
  • 2103

Ricerche fisiche sopra il veleno della vipera.

Lucca: Jacopo Giusti, 1767.

The starting point of modern investigations of serpent venoms and their antidotes. This work also includes Fontana’s description of the ciliary canal in the eye of an ox. This structure does not appear in the human eye, but certain spaces in the trabecular meshwork are often referred to as the spaces of Fontana. Digital facsimile from the Medical Heritage Library, Internet Archive at this link.

In 1781 Fontana issued a greatly expanded 2-volume edition in French, including vegetable poisons, and a section on "American poisons": Traité sur le vénin de la vipere, sur les poisons americains, sur le laurier-cerise et sur quelques autres poisons vegetaux. On y a joint des observations sur la structure primitive du corps animal. Différentes expériences sur la reproduction des nerfs et la description d'un nouveau canal de l'oeil. Digital facsimile of the French edition from the Internet Archive at this link. In 1787 the French edition was translated into English by Joseph Skinner in 2 vols. as Treatise on the venom of the viper, on the American poisons, and on the cherry laurel, and some other vegetable poisons. To which are annexed, observations on the primitive structure of the animal body, different experiments on the reproduction of the nerves, and a description of a new canal of the eye .... Digital facsimile of the second English edition (1795) from the Internet Archive at this link.



Subjects: ANATOMY › Neuroanatomy, COMPARATIVE ANATOMY, OPHTHALMOLOGY › Anatomy of the Eye & Orbit, TOXICOLOGY, TOXICOLOGY › Venoms, TOXICOLOGY › Zootoxicology