Leonardo Bianchi (5 April 1848 – 13 February 1927), an Italian neuropathologist, politician, and writer from

San Bartolomeo in Galdo San Bartolomeo in Galdo is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Benevento in the Italian region Campania, located about 90 km northeast of Naples and about 35 km northeast of Benevento, on a hill overlooking the valley of the ...

in the Province of Benevento, earned fame from his work on cerebral functions and diseases of the nervous system. His work contributed to the very first known handbook of neurological semiology and examination in Italy.

Early life and education

Leonardo Bianchi was born in the small Italian town

on April 5, 1848. He was the son of Vincenzo, a pharmacist, and chemist, and Alessia Longo. Bianchi showed an interest in literature, classical arts, and education from an early age. He completed his secondary and high school education in Benevento and graduated in Medicine and Surgery from the

University of Naples The University of Naples Federico II ( it, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II) is a public university in Naples, Italy. Founded in 1224, it is the oldest public non-sectarian university in the world, and is now organized into 26 depar ...

in January 1871. Where he was taught by great influences, such as Luciano Armanni and Otto Von Schron.

Medical career

After receiving his medical degree, Bianchi developed an interest in neuropsychiatry while working as a doctor at the Real Albergo dei Poveri. He delved into various scientific and medical topics, and in 1876 he received a teaching degree in

electrotherapy Electrotherapy is the use of electrical energy as a medical treatment. In medicine, the term ''electrotherapy'' can apply to a variety of treatments, including the use of electrical devices such as deep brain stimulators for neurological dise ...

, medical pathology, and

medical clinic Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care practic ...

at the University of Naples. From 1879 to 1881, Bianchi was appointed professor of the medical clinic at the

University of Cagliari The University of Cagliari ( it, Università degli Studi di Cagliari) is a university in Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy. It was founded in 1606 and is organized in 11 faculties. History The ''Studium Generalis Kalaritanum'' was founded in 1606 alon ...

, where he worked with the Director of the Clinic of Nervous and Mental disease, Giuseppe Buonomo, at the Royal Asylum of S. Francesco di Sales.Ottorino Strawberry, ''Leonardo Bianchi'', Naples, Tip. Eduardo Chiurazzi, 1917 Giuseppe Buonomo also served as a professor of psychiatry at the University of Naples, with Binachi serving as his assistant. In 1882, he founded the ''Annali di neurologia'' or better known as the Psychiatric Institute of Naples. He eventually served as a professor of

psychiatry Psychiatry is the specialty (medicine), medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders. These include various maladaptations related to mood, behaviour, cognition, and perceptions. See glossary of psych ...

and neuropathology at the Universities of Palermo and

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

from 1888 to 1923. While working as a professor, he wrote a manual on the semiology of diseases of the nervous system. His manual was the first handbook to fully describe neurological signs and symptoms and gave, in detail, the workup for neurological examination. After the death of Giuseppe Buonomo, Bianchi was appointed director of the Royal Asylum of S. Francesco di Sales, where he worked to reform the asylum's practices as well as implementing various hospital and institutional reforms. In 1910, his best-known written work is ''La meccanica del cervello'' (The Mechanism of the Brain) of 1920.

Political career

Leonardo Bianchi's political career started in 1892 when he was appointed the role of deputy for San Bartolomeo in Galdo in the Italian Parliament. He was re-elected again as deputy for Montesarchio in 1897, where he was an activist for school and cultural reform. During his legislation, he advocated for various social reforms. He advocated for regulations of prostitution, especially in protecting minors as well as advocating for prison reform. In 1904, he became well known for his asylum and hospital reform law. Some examples of Leonardo Bianchi's reform would be restructuring medical education to center on doctor-patient relationship and the abolishment of straitjackets in asylums. On March 28, 1905, Leonardo Bianchi was appointed to lead the Minister Department of Public Education by the King of Italy, which was presided over by Alessandro Fortis. His primary mission and goal as the leader of public education was to create radical reform of the Italian school system and organization. He created the chair of experimental psychology and established each chair in all faculties and universities that had a literature and philosophy department. He created the chair of

occupational diseases An occupational disease is any chronic ailment that occurs as a result of work or occupational activity. It is an aspect of occupational safety and health. An occupational disease is typically identified when it is shown that it is more prevalen ...

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

and the chair of criminal

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...

. For middle schools, he implemented reforms that centered on culture and illiteracy rates. Although most of Leonardo Bianchi's political involvement and reform centered on the arts and science, he did place reforms and initiatives outside of this spectrum. He advocated for the construction of a railway that would connect

to Apulia and

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regions all the way to the mountain areas of Samnite Apennines. While continuing his political career, Leonardo Bianchi was able to combine his medical knowledge with his influence in politics. He worked with the Italian government to create policies that would help the fight against malaria, alcoholism, and syphilis. His efforts were successful in eradicating malaria from most Italian territories. His influence in politics continued throughout the 1900s, in 1914, during the world war, Leonardo Bianchi favored Italy's entry into the war. During the war he helped with the organization of military hospitals and veteran care. In 1916, when

Paolo Boselli Paolo Boselli (8 June 1838 – 10 March 1932) was an Italian politician who served as the 34th prime minister of Italy during World War I. Biography Boselli was born in Savona, Liguria. Boselli was the first professor of science at the Univ ...

became the prime minister of Italy, Leonardo Bianchi was appointed to delegate social security and mental health reform. After the conclusion of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

1919 Events January * January 1 ** The Czechoslovak Legions occupy much of the self-proclaimed "free city" of Pressburg (now Bratislava), enforcing its incorporation into the new republic of Czechoslovakia. ** HMY ''Iolaire'' sinks off the ...

, King Vittorio Emanuele III appointed Leonardo Bianchi a lifetime position in the Italian Senate. It is said that this appointment was influenced by the invitation of Giovanni Giolitti. Leonardo Bianchi's reform and policies were known to be liberal and on the democratic side. During his lifetime appointment as a senator, he strongly opposed Fascism. Unfortunately, due to his opposition to Fascism, Benito Mussolini prevented Leonardo Bianchi's candidacy for the Nobel Prize for Medicine, thus, preventing his victory.

Death

Leonardo Bianchi died on February 13, 1927, during a conference at the

from complications due to

angina pectoris Angina, also known as angina pectoris, is chest pain or pressure, usually caused by insufficient blood flow to the heart muscle (myocardium). It is most commonly a symptom of coronary artery disease. Angina is typically the result of obstru ...

. To honor his memory, work, and contributions, the hospital where he was a previous director, the Provincial Asylum San Francesco di Sales in Naples, was renamed The Leonardo Bianchi Psychiatric Hospital. A monument was later created by artist Fulvio Rosapane in Leonardo Bianchi's hometown of

at the Piazza Municipio. Not much is known regarding Leonardo Bianchi's personal life.

Work and contributions

Bianchi is remembered for his studies and experiments of the

frontal lobe The frontal lobe is the largest of the four major lobes of the brain in mammals, and is located at the front of each cerebral hemisphere (in front of the parietal lobe and the temporal lobe). It is parted from the parietal lobe by a groove be ...

. Most of his research was derived from experiments with monkeys and dogs after he had surgically removed (

ablation Ablation ( la, ablatio – removal) is removal or destruction of something from an object by vaporization, chipping, erosive processes or by other means. Examples of ablative materials are described below, and include spacecraft material for a ...

) the animals' frontal lobe. He concluded from his experiments that the frontal lobe had more functionality than previously believed. He described the lobe as the center of coordination and fusion of the incoming and outgoing products of the sensory and motor areas of the cortex. From his experiments, he showed the frontal lobe's role in "reminiscence, judgment and discrimination" and listed five areas of deficit due to frontal lobe ablation. # Loss of perceptive qualities, leading to defective attention and object recognition. # Reduced

memory Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembered ...

# Reduction in associative skills, inability to formulate the steps needed to reach a goal, along with the inability to perform complex tasks. # Altered emotional attachments, and drastic changes in social skills. # Disruption of focal

consciousness Consciousness, at its simplest, is sentience and awareness of internal and external existence. However, the lack of definitions has led to millennia of analyses, explanations and debates by philosophers, theologians, linguisticians, and scien ...

, leading to

apathy Apathy is a lack of feeling, emotion, interest, or concern about something. It is a state of indifference, or the suppression of emotions such as concern, excitement, motivation, or passion. An apathetic individual has an absence of intere ...

and distractibility Along with his research with monkeys and dogs, Leonardo Bianchi conducted analysis on military war victims who suffered from head traumas that limited their temporal and frontal lobe functions. From his analysis, he deduced that the frontal lobe is needed for mental thought processes and solving simple math problems. Bianchi's research was the first to describe frontal lobe syndrome, which helped to gather him fame in the academic world of Europe and the USA. Other accomplishments of Leonardo Bianchi were that he was one of the first known medical doctors who diagnosed parietal syndrome and he was the first president of the Italian Society of Neurology. Leonardo Bianchi's fame in the neuropsychiatry world led to his appointment as editor of the International Journal of Medical Sciences in 1898. In 1904, Bianchi published one of his most famous publications titled the ''Treatise on Psychiatry'' which became a universal reference for psychiatry. Leonardo Bianchi's publications had worldwide fame in the psychiatry field. His publications were translated into many languages, such as English. In his English-translated version of his ''Text-Book of Psychiatry'', his work had three parts. Part one focused on the anatomy and physiology of the brain, part two dealt with the psychological aspects of insanity, and part three focused on the individual forms of mental disorder.

Honors and nominations

Bianchi received many honors and nominations throughout his lifetime. During Bianchi's political career, he was honored with the Grand Cross of the Mauritian Order by the King of Italy. Bianchi was also nominated seven times for the Nobel Prize of Medicine between 1910 and 1926. Throughout his involvement in medicine and politics, he worked with various famous lecturers and politicians. Quotes regarding Leonardo Bianchi by these influential figures are seen from the quote by Louis Luzzatti below, who was the president of the council of ministers:

"High knowledge and very sweet character together give prominence to the noble figure of Leonardo Bianchi."