Friedrich Bernard Christian Maassen
United Sees of Macerata and Tolentino
Vicariate Apostolic of Mackenzie
Marie-Edmé-Patrice-Maurice de MacMahon
Joseph-Anna-Marie de Moyria de Mailla
François-Pierre-Gonthier Maine de Biran
Françoise, Marquise de Maintenon
Joseph-Marie, Comte de Maistre
Marcellinus of Civezza, O.F.M.
Margaret of the Blessed Sacrament
Prefecture Apostolic of Mariana Islands
Congregation of the Missionaries of Mariannhill
Sts. Maris, Martha, Audifax, and Abachum
Lucius Perpetuus Aurelianus Marius Maximus
Vicariate Apostolic of Marquesas Islands
Moral and Canonical Aspect of Marriage
Diocese of Marseilles (Massilia)
Vicariate Apostolic of the Marshall Islands
Diocese of Marsico Nuovo and Potenza
Luigi Ferdinando, Count de Marsigli
Missionaries of the Company of Mary
Servants of Mary (Order of Servites)
Society of Mary (Marist Fathers)
St. Mary Frances of the Five Wounds of Jesus
Richard Angelus a S. Francisco Mason
Devises and Bequests for Masses (United States)
Feast of the Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maximianus
Caius Julius Verus Maximinus Thrax
Prefecture Apostolic of Mayotte, Nossi-Bé, and Comoro
Charles Joseph Eugene de Mazenod
Abbey and Congregation of Melk
Vicariate Apostolic of Méndez and Gualaquiza
Francisco Sarmiento de Mendoza
Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy
Sisters of Mercy of St. Borromeo
Frédéric-François-Xavier Ghislain de Mérode
Delegation Apostolic of Mesopotamia, Kurdistan, and Armenia
Metal-Work in the Service of the Church
Prince Klemens Lothar Wenzel von Metternich
Francis, Joseph, and Paul Mezger
Military Orders of St. Michael
Giovanni Francesco Pico della Mirandola
Congregation of the Sisters of Misericorde
Prefecture Apostolic of Misocco and Calanca
Congregation of Priests of the Mission
Congregation of Missionaries of St. Charles Borromeo
Missionaries of St. Francis de Sales of Annecy
Missionary Society of St. Paul the Apostle
Mission Indians (of California)
Catholic Indian Missions of Canada
Catholic Indian Missions of the United States
François-Napoléon-Marie Moigno
Diocese of Molfetta, Terlizzi, and Giovinazzo
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin Molière
Principality and Diocese of Monaco
Canonical Erection of a Monastery
Monophysites and Monophysitism
Monothelitism and Monothelites
Montagnais Indians (Chippewayans)
Charles-Forbes-René, Comte de Montalembert
Marquis de Louis-Joseph Montcalm-Gozon
Diocese of Monterey and Los Angeles
Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu
Anne, First Duke of Montmorency
Alexis-François Artaud de Montor
Antoine-Jean-Baptiste-Robert Auget, Baron de Montyon
Dioceses of Mostar and Markana-Trebinje
Feast of the Most Pure Heart of Mary
Toribio de Benavente Motolinia
Congregations of Mount Calvary
Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel
Karl Ernst, Freiherr von Moy de Sons
Johann Chrysostomus Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
St. Clair Augustine Mulholland
Baron Eligius Franz Joseph von Münch-Bellinghausen
Archdiocese of Munich-Freising
Founder of comparative physiology, b. at Crevalcore, 10 March, 1628; d. at Rome, 29 Sept., 1694. The year of his birth was that of the publication of Harvey's book on the circulation of the blood, a work which Malpighi was destined to complete by his observations on the capillaries. Brought up on the paternal farm, he became at the age of about seventeen a student at the University of Bologna. He devoted himself to philosophy, but during the last year of his undergraduate course his father, mother, and paternal grandmother died. As he was the eldest of the children and the next three were girls, he had to leave the university to settle the financial affairs of the family. It was more than two years before he could resume his studies, and then he had to take up a profession that would enable him to help the family. In the medical school Malpighi attracted the attention of Professor Massari, who was not only a teacher but an investigator, and in 1653 obtained the degree of doctor in medicine and philosophy. The following year he married Francesca Massari, younger and favourite sister of his distinguished professor, who died the year after. Malpighi's independence of thought and his refusal to follow Gallen blindly, aroused opposition. Still, he was offered in 1656 the chair of medical practice at the university, and, towards the end of the same year, a special chair of theoretical medicine was created for him at the recently established University of Pisa. After three years' work at Pisa he returned to Bologna, and two years later was called to the University of Messna in Sicily. Here he remained four years, and, on his return to Bologna, was greeted as one of her greatest citizens.
Everything that Malpighi had touched had meanwhile turned to science. He had used the microscope on human tissues with such good effect that one of the lavers of the skin is still called the rete Malpighi; certain bodies in the spleen and in the kidneys are called by his name, and important discoveries in the liver are due to him. The first good comparative study of the liver, from the snail through the fishes, reptiles, and mammaIs up to man, is due to Malpighi, and he was the first to give an adequate description of the formation of the chick in the egg. One day he studied the jagged bark of a green branch, and found little vessels in the wood. His study of the capillary circulation in man gave him an interest in this, and the result was published by Royal Society of England ("Anatome plantarum idea", London, 1675). The Royal Society suggested his study of silk-worms. This book is still consulted, though Malpighi had few aids for such minute anatomy at that time. When he was about sixty-four and at the height of his fame, Pope Innocent XII, who had been his personal friend, invited him to Rome as papal physician and professor of medicine in the Papal Medical School. He was held in high honour during his last years, and died there of apoplexy in the sixty-seventh year of his age.
Notizie Biografiche intorno a Marcello Malpighi, Raccolte dal Dr. Ercole Ferrario (Milan, 1860), JOURDAIN in Biographie Medicale (Paris, 1824); WALSH, Malpighi in The Messenger (New York, Aug., 1905); McCALLUM in Johns Hopkins Bulletin (Aug., 1905). His scientific work is largely contained in Opera (London, 1696), issued at the expense of the Royal Society.
JAMES J. WALSH