Giovanni Grassi
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Giovanni Battista Grassi (27 March 1854 – 4 May 1925) was an Italian physician and zoologist, best known for his pioneering works on
parasitology Parasitology is the study of parasites, their hosts, and the relationship between them. As a biological discipline, the scope of parasitology is not determined by the organism or environment in question but by their way of life. This means it fo ...
, especially on malariology. He was Professor of Comparative Zoology at the University of Catania from 1883, and Professor of Comparative Anatomy at Sapienza University of Rome from 1895 until his death. His scientific contributions covered embryological development of honey bees, on helminth parasites, the vine parasite
phylloxera Grape phylloxera is an insect pest of commercial grapevines worldwide, originally native to eastern North America. Grape phylloxera (''Daktulosphaira vitifoliae'' (Fitch 1855) belong to the family Phylloxeridae, within the order Hemiptera, bugs ...
, on migrations and
metamorphosis Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develops including birth or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal's body structure through cell growth and differentiation. Some inse ...
in eels, and on termites. He was the first to describe and establish the life cycle of the human
malarial parasite ''Plasmodium'' is a genus of unicellular eukaryotes that are obligate parasites of vertebrates and insects. The life cycles of ''Plasmodium'' species involve development in a blood-feeding insect host which then injects parasites into a verteb ...
, ''
Plasmodium falciparum ''Plasmodium falciparum'' is a Unicellular organism, unicellular protozoan parasite of humans, and the deadliest species of ''Plasmodium'' that causes malaria in humans. The parasite is transmitted through the bite of a female ''Anopheles'' mosqu ...
'', and discovered that only female anopheline mosquitoes are capable of transmitting the disease. His works in malaria remain a lasting controversy in the history of Nobel Prizes, because a British army surgeon Ronald Ross, who discovered the transmission of malarial parasite in birds was given the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. But Grassi, who demonstrated the complete route of transmission of human '' Plasmodium'', and correctly identified the types of malarial parasite as well as the mosquito vector, ''
Anopheles claviger ''Anopheles claviger'' is a mosquito species found in Palearctic realm covering Europe, North Africa, northern Arabian Peninsula, and northern Asia. It is responsible for transmitting malaria in some of these regions. The mosquito is made up of ...
'', was denied. Grassi was the first to demonstrate the life cycle of human dwarf tapeworm''
Taenia nana Dwarf tapeworm (''Hymenolepis nana'', also known as ''Rodentolepis nana'', ''Vampirolepis nana'', ''Hymenolepis fraterna'', and ''Taenia nana'') is a cosmopolitan species though most common in temperate zones, and is one of the most common ces ...
'', and that this tapeworm does not require an
intermediate host In biology and medicine, a host is a larger organism that harbours a smaller organism; whether a parasitic, a mutualistic, or a commensalist ''guest'' (symbiont). The guest is typically provided with nourishment and shelter. Examples include a ...
, contrary to popular belief. He was the first to demonstrate the direct life cycle of the roundworm '' Ascaris lumbricoides'' by self-experimentation. He described
canine Canine may refer to: Zoology and anatomy * a dog-like Canid animal in the subfamily Caninae ** '' Canis'', a genus including dogs, wolves, coyotes, and jackals ** Dog, the domestic dog * Canine tooth, in mammalian oral anatomy People with the ...
filarial worm Filariasis is a parasitic disease caused by an infection with roundworms of the Filarioidea type. These are spread by blood-feeding insects such as black flies and mosquitoes. They belong to the group of diseases called helminthiases. These ...
''Dipetalonema reconditum'', and demonstrated the parasite life cycle in fleas, '' Pulex irritans''. He invented the genus of threadworms ''
Strongyloides ''Strongyloides'' (from Greek ''strongylos'', round, + ''eidos'', resemblance), anguillula, or threadworm is a genus of small nematode parasites, belonging to the family Strongylidae, commonly found in the small intestine of mammals (particularl ...
''. He named the spider ''Koenenia mirabilis'' in 1885 after his wife, Maria Koenen. He pioneered the foundation of pest control for phylloxera of grapes.


Biography

Grassi was born in Rovellasca, Italy, in what is now the
Province of Como The Province of Como ( it, Provincia di Como; german: Provinz Como; Comasco: ) is a province in the north of the Lombardy region of Italy and borders the Swiss cantons of Ticino and Grigioni to the North, the Italian provinces of Sondrio and Le ...
. His father Luigi Grassi was a municipal official, and mother Costanza Mazzuchelli was a noted peasant of unusual intelligence. His early education was at Saronno. From 1872 he studied medicine at the University of Pavia under professors
Camillo Golgi Camillo Golgi (; 7 July 184321 January 1926) was an Italian biologist and pathologist known for his works on the central nervous system. He studied medicine at the University of Pavia (where he later spent most of his professional career) betwee ...
and
Giulio Bizzozero Giulio Bizzozero (; 20 March 1846 – 8 April 1901) was an Italian doctor and medical researcher. He was a pioneer of histology and is credited with the coining of the term platelets and identifying their function in coagulation. Background B ...
and graduated in 1878. After graduation he worked first at
Messina Messina (, also , ) is a harbour city and the capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of more than 219,000 inhabitants in ...
in the
Naples Zoological Station The Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn is a research institute in Naples, Italy, devoted to basic research in biology. Research is largely interdisciplinary involving the fields of evolution, biochemistry, molecular biology, neurobiology, cell bio ...
and the Oceanographic Station founded by Nicolaus Kleinenberg and Anton Dohrn where he studied Chaetognatha, then completed his training at the University of Heidelberg in Germany under the guidance of Karl Gegenbaur and
Otto Bütschli Johann Adam Otto Bütschli (3 May 1848 – 2 February 1920) was a German zoologist and professor at the University of Heidelberg. He specialized in invertebrates and insect development. Many of the groups of protists were first recognized by him. ...
. While in Heidelberg, he married Maria Koenen. In 1883 he became Professor of Comparative Zoology at the University of Catania, studying cestodes, the life cycle of the
European eel The European eel (''Anguilla anguilla'') is a species of eel, a snake-like, catadromous fish. They are normally around and rarely reach more than , but can reach a length of up to in exceptional cases. Eels have been important sources of fo ...
(Catania) and the Moray eel (Rome). Also in Catania he began to study entomology and wrote a student text "''The Origin and Descent of Myriapods and Insects''" in addition to scientific papers. He also began to study malaria working with
Raimondo Feletti Raimondo Feletti (1851-1927) was an Italian physician and zoologist. Feletti worked at a clinic in Catania where a street is named for him "Via Raimondo Feletti".With Giovanni Batista Grassi he published several works on malarial parasites in b ...
on malaria, especially
bird malaria Avian malaria is a parasitic disease of birds, caused by parasite species belonging to the genera '' Plasmodium'' and '' Hemoproteus'' (phylum Apicomplexa, class Haemosporidia, family Plasmoiidae). The disease is transmitted by a dipteran vect ...
. In 1895 he was appointed professor of comparative anatomy at Sapienza University of Rome, where he would spend the rest of his life. He joined
Angelo Celli Angelo Celli (25 March 1857 – 2 November 1914) was an Italian physician, hygienist, parasitologist and philanthropist known for his pioneering work on the malarial parasite and control of malaria. He was Professor of Hygiene at the Universit ...
,
Amico Bignami Amico Bignami (15 April 1862 – 8 September 1929) was an Italian physician, pathologist, malariologist and sceptic. He was professor of pathology at Sapienza University of Rome. His most important scientific contribution was in the discovery of ...
,
Giuseppe Bastianelli Giuseppe Bastianelli (25 October 1862 – 30 March 1959) was an Italian physician and zoologist who worked on malaria and was the personal physician of Pope Benedict XV. Born in Rome, Bastianelli was initially interested in chemistry, physiology ...
and
Ettore Marchiafava Ettore Marchiafava (3 January 1847 – 22 October 1935) was an Italian physician, pathologist and neurologist. He spent most of his career as professor of medicine at the University of Rome (now Sapienza Università di Roma). His works on malar ...
, who were working on malaria in districts around Rome. Grassi was the group's entomologist. The group announced at the session of the
Accademia dei Lincei The Accademia dei Lincei (; literally the "Academy of the Lynx-Eyed", but anglicised as the Lincean Academy) is one of the oldest and most prestigious European scientific institutions, located at the Palazzo Corsini on the Via della Lungara in Rom ...
on 4 December 1889 that a healthy man in a non-malarial zone had contracted tertian malaria after being bitten by an experimentally infected ''
Anopheles claviger ''Anopheles claviger'' is a mosquito species found in Palearctic realm covering Europe, North Africa, northern Arabian Peninsula, and northern Asia. It is responsible for transmitting malaria in some of these regions. The mosquito is made up of ...
''. Between 1900 and 1902, Grassi, Gustavo Pittaluga and
Giovanni Noè Giovanni Noè (29 April 1866 – 28 December 1908) was an Italian lawyer, anarchist and politician, involved in the Fasci Siciliani (Sicilian Leagues), a popular movement of democratic and socialist inspiration in 1891-1894. He was elected in ...
made intensive studies of malaria at Agro Portuense, at Fiumicino, on the Tiber, and on the plain of
Capaccio Capaccio Paestum (formerly only Capaccio) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Salerno in the Campania region of south-western Italy. The ruins of the ancient Greek city of Paestum lie within borders of the ''comune''. History Geograp ...
, near Paestum. In 1902, Grassi abandoned his study of malaria and began work on the sandfly responsible for
Leishmaniasis Leishmaniasis is a wide array of clinical manifestations caused by parasites of the trypanosome genus ''Leishmania''. It is generally spread through the bite of phlebotomine sandflies, ''Phlebotomus'' and ''Lutzomyia'', and occurs most freq ...
('' Phlebotomus papatasii'') and on a serious insect pest of the grape vine (''
Phylloxera Grape phylloxera is an insect pest of commercial grapevines worldwide, originally native to eastern North America. Grape phylloxera (''Daktulosphaira vitifoliae'' (Fitch 1855) belong to the family Phylloxeridae, within the order Hemiptera, bugs ...
vastatrix )''. Endemic malaria returned to Italy during and after the First World War and Grassi resumed his mosquito studies. He died in Rome in 1925 while reading the proof of his last paper, ''Lezione sulla malaria''. Following his will, he was interred at a village cemetery in Fiumicino, a commune in the
province of Rome The Province of Rome ( it, Provincia di Roma) was one of the five provinces that formed part of the region of Lazio in Italy. It was established in 1870 and disestablished in 2014. It was essentially coterminous with the Rome metropolitan area. T ...
, as he achieved his most important medical research there. His wife Maria (1860–1942) and daughter Isabella were also interred at the same tomb.


Professional achievements


Anatomy and entomology

Grassi's earlier works were on anatomy and then
entomology Entomology () is the science, scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such ...
. He studied the development of the vertebral column in
bony fishes Osteichthyes (), popularly referred to as the bony fish, is a diverse superclass of fish that have skeletons primarily composed of bone tissue. They can be contrasted with the Chondrichthyes, which have skeletons primarily composed of cartilage ...
and also endemic goiter. His studies on bees, myriapods and termites were monumental. He also studied the chetognates and the reproduction of eels, and he described a new species of spider, ''Koenenia mirabilis'' in 1885, dedicated to his wife. He also made significant contribution to the study of the phylloxera of grapes, which he pursued for several years. The notes of his observations ''La questione fillosserica in Italia'' (1904) influenced the Italian Ministry of Agriculture, which eventually requested him to do an exhaustive study of this subject. In 1912 he produced a monumental investigation of the morphology and biology of the Italian and other European genera of phylloxera. It was a foundation for systematic control of agricultural pests.


Helminthology

In 1876 Grassi investigated his native hometown Rovellasca for the high mortality of cats and discovered that they were heavily infected with the
nematode The nematodes ( or grc-gre, Νηματώδη; la, Nematoda) or roundworms constitute the phylum Nematoda (also called Nemathelminthes), with plant-Parasitism, parasitic nematodes also known as eelworms. They are a diverse animal phylum inhab ...
''Dochmius balsami''. In 1878, while still a student at the University of Pavia, he discovered
anchylostomiasis Ancylostomiasis is a hookworm disease caused by infection with Ancylostoma hookworms. The name is derived from Greek ancylos αγκύλος "crooked, bent" and stoma στόμα "mouth". Ancylostomiasis is also known as miner's anaemia, tunnel d ...
in Italy from by identifying the eggs from the faeces of infected individuals. He continued to make great impacts on the study of ''Anguillula intestinalis'', filarial worms, ''Trichocephalus dispar'', and Bilharzia. He was the first to show that the human dwarf tapeworm ''
Taenia nana Dwarf tapeworm (''Hymenolepis nana'', also known as ''Rodentolepis nana'', ''Vampirolepis nana'', ''Hymenolepis fraterna'', and ''Taenia nana'') is a cosmopolitan species though most common in temperate zones, and is one of the most common ces ...
'' is able to go through its entire life cycle in one animal, without the need of an
intermediate host In biology and medicine, a host is a larger organism that harbours a smaller organism; whether a parasitic, a mutualistic, or a commensalist ''guest'' (symbiont). The guest is typically provided with nourishment and shelter. Examples include a ...
, a notion that had long been rejected. He was also the first to show that the flea ''Pulex serraticeps'' is the intermediate host of feline tapeworm ''Taenia elliptica''. Thus he proposed that swallowing of infected fleas (for example, with milk) might be the reason for taeniasis in children. In 1879 he published a work on the life cycle of ''
Strongyloides stercoralis ''Strongyloides stercoralis'' is a human pathogenic parasitism, parasitic nematode, roundworm causing the disease strongyloidiasis. Its common name in the US is threadworm. In the UK and Australia, however, the term ''threadworm'' can also refe ...
'', and erected the genus ''
Strongyloides ''Strongyloides'' (from Greek ''strongylos'', round, + ''eidos'', resemblance), anguillula, or threadworm is a genus of small nematode parasites, belonging to the family Strongylidae, commonly found in the small intestine of mammals (particularl ...
''. In 1890 he, with Salvatore Calandruccio, described ''Dipetalonema reconditum'', a non-pathogenic filarial worm of dogs, and showed that the parasite completed its development in human fleas, '' Pulex irritans''. The first crucial step in understanding the life cycle of the roundworm '' Ascaris lumbricoides'' was demonstrated by Grassi in a grotesque self-experimentation. To solve a century-old puzzle of how infection of roundworm is transmitted from one host to another, he ingested the roundworm eggs on 30 August 1879. He had obtained the eggs from a human corpse, which was heavily infected, upon autopsy on 10 October 1878. After twenty-two days, he found fresh eggs in his faeces. Thus proving that the roundworm is transmitted through direct ingestion from contaminated source.


Malaria and the life cycle of ''Plasmodium''

Grassi made his first contribution on malaria in 1890, when he (with
Raimondo Feletti Raimondo Feletti (1851-1927) was an Italian physician and zoologist. Feletti worked at a clinic in Catania where a street is named for him "Via Raimondo Feletti".With Giovanni Batista Grassi he published several works on malarial parasites in b ...
) discovered ''Haemamoeba vivax'', later renamed '' Plasmodium vivax''. He described ''Proteosoma praecox'', the malaria parasite of birds. In 1891 he performed the first
inoculation Inoculation is the act of implanting a pathogen or other microorganism. It may refer to methods of artificially inducing immunity against various infectious diseases, or it may be used to describe the spreading of disease, as in "self-inoculati ...
of malaria parasites from one bird into another. He was the first to compile a comprehensive monograph on the identity and impact of different malarial parasites. His work ''Studi di uno Zoologo Sulla Malaria '' in 1891 is as relevant today as it was in his time. His description of the specific characteristics responsible for benign tertian (''Haemamoeba vivax''), malignant tertian (''Laverania malariae'', renamed ''
P. falciparum ''Plasmodium falciparum'' is a Unicellular organism, unicellular protozoan parasite of humans, and the deadliest species of ''Plasmodium'' that causes malaria in humans. The parasite is transmitted through the bite of a female ''Anopheles'' mosqu ...
'') and quartan (''Haemamoeba malariae'', renamed '' P. malariae'') malaria resolved the confusion of the time. In addition, his monograph also presented the first conclusive depiction that the bite of only female '' Anopheles'' mosquitoes could transmit malaria. In a classic experiment, he dispatched 112 volunteers to the
Capaccio Capaccio Paestum (formerly only Capaccio) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Salerno in the Campania region of south-western Italy. The ruins of the ancient Greek city of Paestum lie within borders of the ''comune''. History Geograp ...
plains, a malaria-endemic area, protected them from mosquito bites between dusk and dawn, and they did not get malaria (except five of them) compared with 415 unprotected volunteers who all contracted malaria. In 1898 he and Bignami were able to produce the final proof of mosquito transmission of malaria when they fed local mosquitoes (''A. claviger'') on infected patients and found that uninfected individuals developed malaria through the mosquito bite.


Controversy


The 1902 Nobel Prize

The 1902 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Ronald Ross for his discovery of the life cycle of malarial parasite (or as the Nobel citation goes: ''for his work on malaria, by which he has shown how it enters the organism...''). However, this was disputed and continues to be disputed to this day. Grassi was the first to suggest that there must be some developmental stage of ''Plasmodium'' in the white blood cells. In 1897, he and his associates established the developmental stages of malaria parasites in anopheline mosquitoes; and they described the complete life cycles of ''P. falciparum'', ''P. vivax'' and ''P. malariae'' the following year. When the Nobel nomination was called, there began a fiery polemic over priority between him and Ross. The situation was worsened with the involvement of
Robert Koch Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch ( , ; 11 December 1843 – 27 May 1910) was a German physician and microbiologist. As the discoverer of the specific causative agents of deadly infectious diseases including tuberculosis, cholera (though the Vibrio ...
. The initial opinion of the Nobel Committee was that the prize should be shared between Ross and Grassi. Then Ross made a defamatory campaign accusing Grassi of deliberate fraud. Koch was appointed as a "neutral arbitrator" in the committee, and as reported, " ethrew the full weight of his considerable authority in insisting that Grassi did not deserve the honor" (Grassi would later point out flaws in Koch's own methodology on malarial research). Ross was the first to show that malarial parasite was transmitted by the bite of infected mosquitoes, in his case the avian ''
Plasmodium relictum ''Plasmodium relictum'' is a species in the genus ''Plasmodium,'' subgenus '' Haemamoeba''. It is a parasite, and the most common cause of malaria in birds. Like all ''Plasmodium'' species, ''P. relictum'' has both vertebrate and insect host ...
''. But Grassi's work revealed that human malarial parasites were carried only by female ''Anopheles''. He identified the mosquito species correctly, in his case ''P. claviger''. By today's standard, they are likely to have shared the Nobel prize.


Grassi's law

Grassi had developed a dogma that "there is no malaria without ''Anopheles''" or simply, "anophelism without malaria". This was dubbed "Grassi's Law", which is formulated as: infected man + anopheles mosquitoes = malaria. Although the equation is straightforwardly correct, the reverse implication is not so. In many areas, he himself had noted that where anopheline vectors were abundant, malaria was not at all prevalent, and sometimes absent. This caused a little problem in understanding malaria epidemiology for some time. In fact, in 1919 he identified three typical malaria-prevalent localities which were not affected by malaria in the same way: the gardens of Schito near Naples, Massarosa in Tuscany, and Alberone in Lombardia. In 1921, after repeated assessment, he concluded with the assumption of the existence of races of ''Anopheles'' that there were morphologically indistinguishable mosquitoes that do not bite humans and therefore did not play a role as vectors. The enigma was solved in 1925, a year after his death, by his pupil Falleroni, who demonstrated that there are six
cryptic species In biology, a species complex is a group of closely related organisms that are so similar in appearance and other features that the boundaries between them are often unclear. The taxa in the complex may be able to hybridize readily with each oth ...
, of which only four bite humans and transmit malaria.


Recognition

Grassi was awarded the Royal Society's
Darwin Medal The Darwin Medal is one of the medals awarded by the Royal Society for "distinction in evolution, biological diversity and developmental, population and organismal biology". In 1885, International Darwin Memorial Fund was transferred to the ...
in 1896 for his contribution to the study of termites. He was made a senator in Italy by King Victor Emmanuel III. A stamp commemorating Grassi with his portrait on it was issued by the Italian post office in 1955. His birthplace in Rovellasca has been turned into a social centre for the elderly, the front wall of which bears his bust, underneath which there is an inscription:
IN QUESTA CASA DEI SUOI AVI
NACQUE IL 27 MARZO 1854
BATTISTA GRASSI
MEDICO E MAESTRO SCIENZIATO E FILOSOFO
CONTESE ALLA BIOLOGIA I SUOI SEGRETI
NE TRASSE ARMI CONTRO LA FEBBRE PALUSTRE
INVANO COMBATTUTA DA SECOLI
MORTO A ROMA IL 4 MAGGIO 1925
VOLLE ESSERE SEPOLTO A FIUMICINO
FRA GLI UMILI LAVORATORI
DELLA MAREMMA E DELLA PALUDE
DI CUI AVEVA INIZIATO LA REDENZIONE
I SUOI CONCITTADINI DEDICANO
LAPIDE RINNOVATA E ONORATA
NEL I° CENTENARIO DELLA NASCITA
MENTRE NEL MONDO SI AVVERA
IL SUO SOGNO D'UMANA REDENZIONE
DAL SECOLARE FLAGELLO MALARICO
27 MARZO 1954
[Translated as: IN THIS HOME OF HIS ANCESTORS/27 MARCH 1854 WAS BORN/BATTISTA GRASSI/PHYSICIAN AND EXCELLENT SCIENTIST AND PHILOSOPHER/ CONTENTIONS TO BIOLOGY /HE TOOK ARMS AGAINST MARSH FEVER/UNSUCCESSFULLY FOUGHT FOR CENTURIES/DIED IN ROME ON 4 MAY 1925/WANTED TO BE BURIED AT FIUMICINO/BETWEEN THE HUMBLE WORKERS OF MAREMMA AND MARSH/OF WHICH HE HAD STARTED THE REDEMPTION/HIS TOWNSMEN DEDICATE/TOMBSTONE AND HONOURED/IN THE CENTENARY OF HIS BIRTH /WHEN THE WORLD COMES TRUE/HIS HUMAN DREAM OF REDEMPTION/FROM THE AGE-OLD SCOURGE OF MALARIA/27 MARCH 1954]


Bibliography (partial list)

Grassi authored more than 250 scientific papers and, in collaboration with his students and colleagues, wrote another 100. * 1898. Rapporti tra la malaria e peculiari insetti (zanzaroni e zanzare palustri). ''R. C. Accad. Lincei'' 7:163–177. * 1899. Ancora sulla malaria. ''R. C. Accad. Lincei'' 8:559–561. * with Bignami, A. and Bastianelli, G.. 1899. Resoconto degli studi fatti sulla malaria durante il mese di gennaio. ''R. C. Accad. Lincei''. 8:100–104. * 1901. Studii di uno Zoologo sulla Malaria.''Atti dei.Linncei.Mem. Cl.sc.fis.ecc''.3(5), No. 91:299–516.6 plates in colour.


References


Further reading

* Conci, C. & Poggi, R. 1996 ''Iconography of Italian Entomologists, with essential biographical data''. Mem. Soc. Ent. Ital. 75 159–382, 418 Fig. * Howard, L. O. 1930 ''History of applied Entomology (Somewhat Anecdotal)''. Smiths. Miscell. Coll. 84 X+1-564, 51 plates


External links


Biography of Grassi
in English.

In Italian, English translation sometimes available.
Grassi versus Ross

Contributions to Science

Some places and memories related to Giovanni Battista Grassi
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grassi, Giovanni Battista 1854 births 1925 deaths People from the Province of Como Italian zoologists Italian entomologists Members of the Senate of the Kingdom of Italy Malariologists Italian tropical physicians