Looking for the Word “Angiogenesis” in the History of Health Sciences: From Ancient Times to the First Decades of the Twentieth Century

This review deals with the origin of the term "angiogenesis", with an attention to John Hunter who is credited with this neologism. A part of the literature refers to a Hunter's work dating 1787, and the other part claims the first use of the term "angiogenesis" in the Hunter's masterpiece published in 1794. Since we were unable to find the term "angiogenesis" in Hunter's works, this review attempts to bring a new contribution to the historical research of this important concept, moving from ancient times to the first decades of the twentieth century, when "angiogenesis" begun to appear on titles of scientific articles. The development of the knowledge on the cardiocirculatory system and the principal steps of this fascinating subject were examined, with particular regard to microvascular bed and vessel sprouting, and to the intriguing observations on blood vessel neoformation that have been also made in the premicroscopic era. In Hunter's works, the concept of angiogenesis indeed emerges, but not the term "angiogenesis". The scientific language occurring during Hunter's time was still old-fashioned, and the term "angiogenesis" was not one of those he used, rather a much later neologism that sounds too modern to appear in that context. Would the first appearance of the term "angiogenesis" occur in late nineteenth century in studies dealing with embryogenesis and organ vascularization? The present study aims to explore the scientific literature and to open a debate to better define this matter.