Santorio Santori (29 March, 1561 – 22 February, 1636) also called Santorio Santorio, Santorio de' Sanctoriis, or Sanctorius of Padua and various combinations of these names, was an Italian physiologist, physician, and professor, who introduced the quantitative approach into the life sciences and is considered the father of modern quantitative experimentation in medicine. He is also known as the inventor of several medical devices. His work De Statica Medicina, written in 1614, saw many publications and influenced generations of physicians. Life Santorio was born on 29 March, 1561, in Capodistria, in the Venetian part of Istria (today in Slovenia). Santorio's mother, Elisabetta Cordonia, was a noblewoman from an Istrian family. Santorio's father, Antonio, was a nobleman from Friuli working for the Venetian Republic as chief of ordinance of the city. He was educated in his home town and continued his studies in Venice before he entered the University of Padua in 1575, where he obtained his medical degree in 1582. He became a personal physician to a Croatian nobleman from 1587 to 1599, and he set up a medical practice in Venice, where he met Galileo. Santorio died in Venice on 22 February, 1636 caused by complications of a urinary tract disease that he suffered from for many years, and he was buried in Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church (). Work From 1611 to 1624, Santorio was the chair of theoretical medicine at the University of Padua where he performed experiments in temperature, respiration and weight. He resigned from the university in 1624, due to political opposition from the senate. His Professor title and pension were kept for one year after he retired, as he returned to practice medicine in Venice in 1625. In 1630, he was one of the members of the Venetian College of Physicians appointed to cure the Venetian plague. His practices and thinking followed Hippocratic and Galenic principles, but his keen experimentalism marks him as a representative of the 17th Century iatrophysical school of medicine. This school of thought focused on application of mathematics and physics to the study of physiology. Inventions Santorio was the first to use a wind gauge, a water current meter, the pulsilogium (a device used to measure the pulse rate), and a thermoscope. His pulsilogium and thermometer predates similar inventions by Galileo Galilei, Paolo Sarpi and Giovanni Francesco Sagredo who were his learned circle of friends in Venice. Santorio