Woodcut illustration of the clinical thermometer designed by Sanctorios Sanctorios (1561-1636). Also known as Santorio Santorio, he was a Venetian physiologist and inventor of the clinical thermometer. A successful physician and a professor of medicine, Sanctorios introduced measurement and quantification to physiology. In 1612 Sanctorios adapted Galileo's water thermometer to construct a clinical thermometer. He invented a pendulum device, the pulsilogium, to measure pulse rates. He studied metabolism, using a large balance to measure changes in weight and thus proving that most weight was lost due to 'insensible perspiration'. He published his results in 1614 in De statica medicina.