14 Facts About Carlo Forlanini

Carlo Forlanini was a medical doctor and professor at the Universities of Turin and Pavia.

Carlo Forlanini was the inventor of artificial pneumothorax, which was the primary treatment method of pulmonary tuberculosis for the first half of the 20th century and remained in use for severe cases of tuberculosis into the 1970s.

Carlo Forlanini was born in Milan on 11 June 1847, the eldest of four brothers and one sister.

Carlo Forlanini's father, Giuseppe Forlanini, was a physician belonging to a bourgeosie family of Milan.

Carlo Forlanini interrupted his medical studies in 1866 to serve under Garibaldi as part of Garibaldi's unification of Italy.

Carlo Forlanini participated in the Battle of Monte Suello and the Bezzecca.

At the Maggiore hospital, Carlo Forlanini worked in the departments of chronic diseases and eye diseases, then became the head of the skin department in 1881.

In 1884 Carlo Forlanini began his university career at the University of Turin as a tenured professor of special medical pathology, obtained the position of "extraordinarius" professor at the university's preparatory medical clinic, and the following year he became the Director of the Cabinet of Special Preparatory and Medical Pathology.

Year by year Carlo Forlanini improved and promoted his method and, in April 1912, he held a famous lecture in Rome titled "Artificial pneumothorax in the treatment of pulmonary phthisis" at the seventh International Congress on Tuberculosis.

Carlo Forlanini had an attractive personality, was a great conversationalist, and was cultured in music and art.

Carlo Forlanini was very much the beloved physician to his hospital patients and was content to pursue his researches without desire for personal aggrandisement.

When Carlo Forlanini first started exploring the idea of using an artificial pneumothorax as a treatment for tuberculosis, he wasn't aware of Carson's experiments.

From 1912 to 1919, Carlo Forlanini was nominated at least 20 times for the Nobel Prize; all of his nominators were Italian professors of medicine.

Three of the nominations for Carlo Forlanini were submitted by his close friend Camillo Golgi from Pavia, who, as a former Nobel Laureate had the right to propose a candidate each year, he nominated Carlo Forlanini because he was convinced that the invention of pneumothorax was a turning point in the fight against tuberculosis.