The structure of lungs and kidneys in the work of Malpighi

This work documents the fundamental contribution to the knowledge of lungs and kidneys made by Marcello Malpighi. For the first time, in "De Pulmonibus", he described the pulmonary alveoli and the network of capillary perialveolar blood vessels, establishing definitively the existence of a communication between arteries and veins. Furthermore, he demonstrated that air does not enter the blood vessels, but that it makes contact solely with the thin walls of the delicate perialveolar vessels. Malpighi in "De Renibus" exactly described the microscopic anatomy of the cortex of the kidney, composed of renal glomerules. Then he explained the function of these minute structures where the urine is separated from the blood passing into the renal tubules.