BROCCHI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA Ital ian mineralogist and geologist, was born at Bassano. His treatise on the iron mines of Melia, Trattato mineralogico e chemico sulle miniere di ferro del dipartimento del Melia (18o8), procured him the office of inspector of mines in the recently established king dom of Italy. His most important work is the Conchiologia f ossile subapennina con osservazioni geologiche sugli Apennini, e sul suolo adiacente (Milan, 1814) , containing accurate details of the structure of the Apennine range, and an account of the fossils of the Italian Tertiary strata compared with existing species. In his Dello stato fisico del suolo di Roma (1820) he corrected the erroneous views of Breislak, who conceived that Rome occupies the site of a volcano, to which he ascribed the volcanic materials that cover the seven hills. Brocchi died at Khartum while on a geological expedition to the Sudan.