Gabriele Falloppio (1523-1562), often known by his Latin name of Fallopius, was one of the founders of the study of human anatomy.

Fallopius, who was born in Modena, Italy, became professor at Pisa in 1548, and at Padua in 1551, but died at the age of forty. He studied the general anatomy of the bones; described the internal ear better than previous anatomists, especially the tympanum and its osseous ring, the two fenestrae and their communication with the vestibule and cochlea; and gave the first good account of the stylo-mastoid hole and canal, of the ethmoid bone and cells, and of the lacrimal passages. In myology he rectified several mistakes of Vesalius. He also devoted attention to the reproductive organs in both sexes, and discovered the utero-peritoneal canal which still bears his name.

The fallopian tubes and the fallopian canals are named after him.

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An early version of this article was taken from a public domain 1911 encyclopedia.