Finally we will mention an institute which, thanks to the noble initiative and generosity of a stranger, arose on Italian soil, and is des tined to pass entirely into the possession of Italy. We allude to the Zoological Institute Naples, which was founded in 1870 by a German, Anton Dohrn, for the study of marine fauna and has become a model for similar institutes which have since been es tablished at other seacoast towns. It is now being enlarged by the addition of another laboratory for the study of the physiology of marine animals.
In addition to the attention paid to scientific research in the universities and other institutes above mentioned, the scientific life of modern Italy displays itself in the academies, which ac cording to their statutes should gather in themselves whatever there may be of note in the intellectual ranks of the country, or of any of its provinces, and in the special asso ciations which, in turn, seek for affiliation and exchange of ideas between students in the same branch of science. We shall name among the academies, some of which have already been in existence for a long time and are rich in glorious traditions and illustrious names, the Accademia dei Lincei in Rome, the Istituto Lombardo di Scienze e Lettere in Milan, the Instituto Vento di Scienze, Lettere e Arti in Venice, the Academies of Turin, Naples and Bologna. Among the scientific associa tions we may mention Society Italiana di Scienze Naturali, the Society Geologica Italiana, the Societal di Fisica, the Society Seismica, the Society degli Spettroscopisti, the Unione Zoologica, the Societa per l'Entomologia, la Malacologia, etc. In addition to the transac tions, memoirs and reports published by these academies and associations, scientific informa tion is placed at our disposal by the publica tion of numerous technical journals, among which we may mention the Annali di Materna tica, pura ed applicata, the Gazetta Chimica, the Archivio Zoologico, the Nuovo Giornale Botanico, the Annali Ufficio Centrale di Meteorologia e Geodinamica, the Rivista Itali ana di Paleontologia.
Passing now from institutions to men, from the work to the authors, and beginning according to ancient custom with astronomy, Italy of our own day gives us men who have acquired a merited celebrity even be yond the confines of their country and outside the circle of their co-laborers in the same path of science. Temple, a native of Germany,
who from 1875 until his death in 1889. was the director of the observatory of Arcetri near Florence, was a keen observer and an unweary ing discoverer of comets and of smaller planets. Father Secchi (1818-78), who gained a world-wide reputation for the astro nomical observatory of the Collegio Romano, of which he was the director, devoted himself to the systematic study of the spectra of the fixed stars, of which he made the first rational classification, based on the characteris tics of their light rays. To Schiaparelli (b. 1835), the genial astronomer of the observatory of Brcra, we owe the discovery of the relations between falling stars and comets, a long series of exact studies relating to the planet Mars, of which he designed the first chart subsequent to the observations made by him during the planetary opposition of 1877-78, and finally, the establishment of the fact that Mer cury and Venus in a manner analogous to what we know in regard to the moon, com plete their revolution around the sun in the same time that it takes each of them to per form a complete revolution on its own axis. Tacchini (1838-1905), an unwearying organizer, took the initiative, or gave the impulse, in the establishing of scientific and astronomical so cieties. In his own personal studies solar physics predominated. He devoted himself to observing the most important solar eclipses of the year 1870 and later, and discovered the white protuberances in addition to the red pro tuberances. In the same branch of science we have an accurate and efficient investigator in Ricca (b. 1844), who devoted his attention to terrestrial physics, and to the study of Mount Etna, in which field he was pre ceded by the two Gemmolaro and by Silvestri, and earned the name of biographer of the great Sicilian volcano.
The activity of Vesuvius, on the other hand, was observed and made the subject of study for many years by Palmieri (1807-96). He was also one of the first to apply exact methods to the investigation of the phenomena of at mospheric electricity. And as this brings us into the domain of meteorology, we must men: tion Father Denza (1834-94), an earnest worker and investigator, who made noteworthy improvement in the perfecting of meteorological instruments, and caused the establishment. of regular observations in many mountain stations.