Italian Gabriello Fallopio
born 1523, Modena
died Oct. 9, 1562, Padua
Italian anatomist.
He contributed greatly to knowledge of the ear and reproductive system. His observations of the dissection of cadavers are outlined in Observationes anatomicae (1561). He discovered the fallopian tubes, which connect the ovaries to the uterus, and several major nerves of the head and face. He described the semicircular canals in the ear and named the vagina, placenta, clitoris, palate, and cochlea. He and Andreas Vesalius overturned many of Galen 's principles, a development essential to Renaissance medicine.