Joseph Demarco (1718–1793) was a Maltese medical practitioner, a scientist, and a major philosopher. His areas of specialisation in philosophy were mostly philosophical psychology and physiology.Mark Montebello, Il-Ktieb tal-Filosofija f’Malta (A Source Book of Philosophy in Malta), PIN Publications, Malta, 2001, Vol. I, pp. 113–114.
Demarco's extensive interests make him unique. His main concern was human health and he was fascinated by the mechanisms of the human body and its infirmities, especially within their psychological and social contexts. This brought him to be attracted to the philosophical underpinnings of the human condition in all of its aspects.
Life
Beginnings Demarco was born on 2 January 1718 in Cospicua, Malta.Vella, H.C.R. Vella, ed., Joseph Demarco: On the Passage of Air from the Lungs into the Blood System, Malta University Press, Malta, 1999, p. xxii and note p. xxxvii. It might be worth noting here that R. Mifsud Bonnici’s Dizzjunarju Bijo-Bibljografiku Nazzjonali Malti (1960), erroneously states that Demarco was born on 9 November 1723 (p. 171). The same goes with the date provided by M. Montebello, op. cit.. Apparently both publications have used a mistaken common source, which was D. Ignatio Saverio Mifsud’s 1760 Stromatum Melitensium, XV, ff. 11–18, at the Malta National Library. In this regard, see J. Galea, ‘Doctor Giuseppe De Marco’, The St. Luke’s Hospital Gazette, VII, 1, Malta, 1972, pp. 3–13. This seaport and dry-dock hub was also a place where many different peoples congregated. More so since the then Grand Master of the Knights Hospitallers, António Manoel de Vilhena, had given free entry to the harbours to all nations.
Fortunate enough to be born within a well-off family, Demarco was given a good education (including a solid knowledge of Latin), probably at the Collegium Melitense of the Jesuits in Valletta, Malta.Ibid., p. xxii. From an early age, his eyes were set on the medical profession, one highly regarded and very much encouraged by the Knights Hospitallers. Already as a young boy, his medical intellectual curiosity drew him to speculate about the effect of atmospheric conditions on the human body, as his writing from 1733 (De Aere),Montebello, op. cit., vol. II, p. 114. at only fifteen years of age, attests. Of course, he was also very much interested in understanding physical illnesses, as his writing from 1741 (De Tumoribus Humoralibus),Ibid.. on swellings caused by liquid retention, shows. In addition, he was from an early age piqued by instances of pathological madness, common to congested urban areas as his home-town, Cospicua, was, and made some particular observations about the phenomenon (especially that caused by rabies) around 1742 (Tractatus de Rabie).Ibid., p. 131.
However, during this formative time Demarco also entertained interests in other scientific areas. Still in his early twenties, around 1742 he engaged himself in speculations on standard trigonometry (Trattato della Trigonometria Piana)Ibid., p. 228. and elementary arithmetic (Vulgaris Arithmeticæ Elementaris Theoria),Ibid., vol. I, p. 29. giving them also some philosophical depth. During the same period, he wrote short studies on hydrostatics in general (Breve Compendio dell’Idrostatica)Ibid., vol. II, p. 114. and on hydrostatic sources and technology (Trattato de Fonti e Machine Adrostiche).Ibid..
France interlude At just 24 years of age, in 1742, Demarco went to France to pursue a medical degree. Naturally, this was made possible by his parents’ financial resources. He studied at the University of Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon région of the south of France. In particular, he studied under the renowned physician and botanist, François Boissier de Sauvages de Lacroix. This is also attested by a document written by Demarco, Physiologie Cursus: Anatomico – meccanico – experimentalis (A Course in Physiology: Anatomical – mechanical – experimental; 1765) which originates from De Sauvages’ course on the subject.Ibid., p. 99; National Library of Malta [NLM], Manuscript [MS.] 39#3.
Demarco's writings during this period bear out to his professional and proficient stance in medical matters. In particular, one may note his investigations dealing with chest (Tractatus De Morbis Pectoris)Ibid., p. 114. and abdominal ailments (De Morbis Abdominis).Ibid.. In all probability, it was this dexterity and expertise which convinced his lecturers to trust him, from amongst his peers, with a course on physics (as his Traité de Physique attests).Ibid., p. 97. This must have been highly prestigious for the young freshman.
Having completed his two-year course in medicine, Demarco defended his thesis in 1743. It was entitled Dissertatio Physiologica de Respiratione, ejusque Uso Primario (Physiological Aspects of Respiration and its Primary Significance). The work was published a year later, in 1744, at Montpellier.Vella, op.cit., p. xxii and xl.
Malta period Demarco returned to Malta as Doctor of Medicine, but also with a keen eye on social affairs. It seems that his acquaintance with Enlightenment philosophy while in France enhanced his sensitivity towards communal needs and societal acclimatisation. Nevertheless, throughout his long career he never directly involved himself in any political activity, not even when the French Revolution erupted on the European scene.
His commitment was of a purely medical nature. And if every now and then he reached out into philosophical spheres, he always did this in strict relationship to his medical speculations. Demarco, in fact, did not seem sympathetic towards any revolutionary beliefs or objectives. On the contrary, he was a close collaborator and a personal friend of the Grand Master of the Knights Hospitallers, Manuel Pinto da Fonseca, who immediately, on Demarco's return to Malta, chose him as Principle Medical Officer for the Maltese Islands. His loyalty to the Knights Hospitallers went unblemished throughout his entire life.
Professional career Demarco's main professional asset was his sharp eye for observation. This is amply attested by the thirty-four works we have from his forty-two-year career in Malta after his return from Paris. All of his speculative reflections, including his philosophical ones, squarely rest on the authority of concrete experience and on pure sense data.
Though highly proficient from a professional point of view, Demarco was consistently appealed by the theoretical foundations of the medical art and by the intellectual and academic relationships which particular illnesses suggested. As seen from his various works, he inquired into philosophy in general, social philosophy, physics, pathology (as he had in his youth), mechanical physics, experimental philosophy, philosophical physiology, science in general, and various other fields of an academic and rational nature.
In 1788, when Demarco was 70 years of age (and already in poor health himself), the Grand Master of the Knights Hospitallers, Emmanuel de Rohan-Polduc, requested that he went to Tripoli, then an Ottoman province, to see to the health of the pasha there, who was gravely ill. This incident demonstrates the high esteem in which Demarco was held. Not only was the matter complicated from medical point of view, but also politically sensitive (having a Christian medic treated a Muslim leader). Fortunately, the mission was a success, and Demarco's standing was never as strong. While in Tripoli he continued to indulge his scientific and philosophical curiosity by making copiousness notes about the quality of the soil, the atmosphere, and also about local customs. He even took down observations about various illnesses and diseases, particularly (as was his passion) on the types of pathological madness he encountered there.
Death On his return to Malta, Demarco showed serious signs of physical decline. The Order of Knights Hospitallers which he loved was fatally in trouble, not only because of the revolution in France, but also for its internal bankruptcy, corruption, and loose morals. It seemed that Demarco was passing away together with a whole age.
He died at Cospicua, his home-town, on 13 August 1793, and was buried at the parish church at Cospicua.
Published works Demarco's published works are just a handful. They are the following. While the latter three are of some interest to philosophy, the first is of a medical interest only. Dissertatio Physiologica de Respiratione, ejusque Uso Primario (Physiological Aspects of Respiration and its Primary Significance; written in 1743, and published in 1744).Ibid., p. xxiii. – The publication contains six chapters respectively dealing with the following: the organs of breathing and their strength; the nature and peculiarities of respiratory air; the function of breathing; the instruments of expiration, their powers, functions, and the reciprocation of this action; the phenomena of respiration; and the primary use of respiration. The work, which is made up of some 100 pages, and written in Latin, has little philosophical value. It was published by A. Rochard in Montpellier. Tractatus Mechanicus de Non Naturalibus (A Study on Artificial Mechanics; 1748)Montebello, op. cit., vol. II, pp. 23–24. – This book in Latin was published in Avignon, France, by Francis Girard (Palateâ Sancti Desiderii). It bears the long subtitle: Qui est brevis explicatio mutationum, quas in humano corpore producuut Aer, Diaeta, etc. simul cum inquisitione in naturam et usum balneorum. Quibus præfixa est Doctrina Secretionis, pluribus in propositionibus (Which contains brief explanations on certain changes which occur in the human body because of man's environment and his ways of living, and so forth, the same as happens because of living in a natural environment u the use of baths. In which is added some teaching about the distinctions between animals, and also some distinctions).
The publication, which contains 402 pages, is beautifully presented with gilded edges. The material presented is extremely interesting and very detailed, and particularly relevant to philosophy. Basically it deals with the physical functions of human beings, particularly seen under the aspect of the natural environment. Demarco’s basic philosophy throughout the book is that, the more human beings are removed from nature and from natural living, the more they are susceptible to illnesses and, consequently, the more they move towards nature and live in harmony with it, the healthier they will be.
The book is divided in nine chapters. It opens with a preface, a warning to the reader, and a list of 22 proposition concerning the differences between animals. This part is based on the teachings of Aristotle. At the end, Demarco includes a separate study called Tractatus de Hepate (A Treatise concerning Hipatitis).
The nine chapters might be considered under two aspects. While the first five focus on the unnatural causes of physical malfunctions in humans, the last four concentrate on the effects that the environment and natural living have on the human body. The first five chapters respectively deal with the effects which an artificial environment have on the heart, on respiration, on the body, on the brain, and on body temperature. The successive four chapters respectively deal with the beneficial effects on the body which ensue from the natural environment, therapeutic baths, food, and drink.