MEDICAL SCHOOL, NETLEY, an establishment for the technical education of medical ,officers for the British and Indian military service. Candidates are examined competi tively in the ordinary subjecta of professional knowledge; and, passing satisfactorily through that ordeal, are then required to attend, for six months, at the Military Medical • -school. where they go through practical courses of military hygiene, military and clini cal-military surgery and medicine, and pathology with morbid anatomy. As the school is attached to the Royal Victoria hospital, which is the great invalid depot for the vs-hole army, the students have ample opportunity Of seeing theory exemplified in practice. The school comprises 4 professors with £850 a year each, 4 assistant-professors hav ing £450 each, and usually about 40 medical candidates. who receive each 5s. a day and lodging-money. The annual cost of the whole establishment is about £7,900. See NETLEY.
Tim, who ranked among the first and most disting-uished families of the Florentine republic, owe their earliest distinction to the success with which they had pursued various branches of cominerce, and the liberal spirit in which they devoted their wealth to purposes of general utility. From the beginning of the 13th c., the Medici took part in all the leading events of the republic; and from the period when Salvestro 4Ie' Medici attained the rank of gonfaloniere in 1378, the family rose rapidly to pre -eminence, although the almost regal greatness which it enjoyed for several centuries is "Imre especially due to Giovanni de' Medici, who died in 1429, leaving to his sons, Cosmo ,and Lorenzo, a heritage of wealth and honors hitherto unparalleled in the republic. , With Cosmo (born 1389, died 1464), on whom was gratefully bestowed the honored title •of " Father-of his country," began the aiorious epoch of the Medici; while from Lorenzo _ is descended the collateral branch of tlie family, which, in the 16th c., obtained absolute rule over Tuscany. Cosum's life, except during a short period, when the Albizzi and 'other rival families re-established a successful opposition against the policy and credit of the Medici, was one uninterrupted course of prosperity; at once a munificent patron and :a successful cultivator of art and literature, he did more than any sovereign in Europe to revive the study of the ancient classics, and to foster a taste for mental culture. He assembled around him learned men of every nation, and gave liberal support to uumer -ous Greek scholars, whom the subjection of Constantinopleby the Turks had driven into exile; and by his foundation of an academy for the study of the philosophy of Plato, and of a library of Greek,Latin, and Oriental _MSS, he inauo.urated a new era in modern learning and art. But although these merits mast conejled to hini, it must not be forgotten that while he retained the name of a republican form of government, and:' nominally confided the executive authority to a gonfaloniere and eight priori or senators, lie totally extinguished the freedom of Florence. His grandson, Lorenzo the Magnifi cent (born Jan. 1, 1448, died April 8, 1492). who succeeded to undivided and absolute power in the state, after the murder of his brother Giuliano in 1478, pursued, with signal success, the policy of his family, which may be characterized as tending to ennoble in dividuals and debase the nation at large. He encouraged literature and the arts, etnployed learned men to collect choice books and antiquities for him from every part of the known world, established printing-presses in his dominions as soon as the art was invented, founded academies for the study of classical learning, and filled his gardens with collections of the remains of ancient art; but when his munificence and conciliatory manners had gained for him the affection of the higher and the devotion of the lower classes, he lost no time in breaking down the forms of constitutional independence that he.and his predecessors had hitherto suffered to exist. Sonte few Florentines, alarmed' at the progress of the voluptuous refinement which was smothering every spark of per sonal independence, tried to stem the current of corruption by an ascetic severity of morals,'Which gained for them the name of piagnoni, or weepers. Foremost among them was the Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola (q.v.), whose eloquent appeals to the. people in favor of a popular and democratic fonn of government, threatened for a time the overthrow of the Medici; but the jealousy of the Franciscans, and the vindictiveness.
of the papal court, averted their doom. Savonarola's martyrdom restored outward tran quillity to Florence, and left the Medici iD undisturbed possession of absolute power. Pietro (born 1471), who succeeded his father Lorenzo in 1492, possessed neither capacity nor prudence; and in the troubles which the ambition of her princes and the profligacy of her popes brought upon Italy, by plunging her into civil and foreign war, lie showed himself treacherous and vacillating alike to friends and foes. Lodovico Sforza, surnamed the "Moor," relying on 'the friendship which, from the middle of the 15th c., had pre vailed between the SforZa family of Milan and the Medici, applied to him for assistance in establishing his claim to the duchy of Milan; but geeing- that no reliance could be placed on Pietro, he threw himself into the arms of Charles VIII. of France. The result was the invasion of Italy by a French anny of 32,000 men. Pietro, in hopes of conciliat ing the powerful invader, hastened to meet the troops on their entrance into the domin - ions of Florence, and surrendered to Charles the fortresses of Leghorn and Pisa, which constituted the keys of the republic. The magistrates and people, incensed at his per fidy, drove him from the city, and formally deposed the family of the Medici from all participation in power.' Pietro, who was slain in 1503, while fighting in the French ranks, and several of his kinsmen, made ineffectual attempts to recover their dominions. which were not restored till 1512. The elevation of Giovanni de' Medici to the paptd chair, under the title of Leo X., completed the restoration of the family to their former splendor, while the accession in 1523, of his cousin Giulio Medici to the pontificate as Clement VII., and the marriage of Catharine, the granddaughter of Pietro, to Henry II. of France, and her long rule over that country as regent for her sons, together with the military power of the cadet branch (descended from a younger brother of the "Father of his country"), threw a weight of power into the hands of the Medici, which rendered all attempts to maintain'even a show of independence-futile on the part of the Floren tines. The faintest indication of republican spirit was at once crushed by the combined aid of the pope and Chdrlea V.; and thoug.li the legitimate male line of Cosmo was ex tinct (with the exception of pope Clement VII.), the latter gave in 1529, to Alessandro, natural son of the last prince Lorenzo II., the rank of duke of Florence; and on his death, by assassination, without direct heirs, in 1537, raised Cosino I., the descendant of a collateral brandi, to the ducal chair. Como, known as the great, possessed the astute ness of character, the love of elegance, and taste for literature, but not the frank and generous spirit that had distinguished his great ancestors; and while he founded the academies of painting and of fine arts, made collections of paintings and statuary, pub lished magnificent editions of his own works and those of others, and encouraged trade, for the protection of which he instituted the ecclesiastical order of St. Stephen, he was implacable in his enmity, and scrupled not utterly to extirpate the race of the Strozzi, the hereditary foes of his house. IIis acquisition of Sienna gained for him the title of grand duke of Tuscany front Pius V.; and lie died in 1574, leaving enormous wealth and regal power to his descendants, who, throughout the next half century, maintained the literary and artistic fame of their family. In the 17th c., the race rapidly degenerated; and after several of its representatiiTes had suffered themselves to be made the mere tools of Spanish and Austrian ambition, the last male representative of the line, Giovanni Gaston, died in 1737, and his only sister the Electress Palatine. the last of the Medici family, expired in 1743. In accordance with a stipulation of thc peace of Vienna, the grand duchy of Tuscany passed to the house of Lorraine.
NEEDICI'NA,a t. of Italy, in the province of Bologna, 13 in. e. of the eity of that name. Pop. 4,000. It is a thriving place, with considerable trade and large markets_ It has five churches and a theater, and is surrounded by walls. It occupies the site of the ancient city Claterna, of which some remains are still visible.