1896,] natural sciences of philadelphia. 483 



October 6, 



The President, Samuel G. Dixon, M. D,, in the Chair. 



Forty persons present. 



The Committee on the Hayden Memorial Award reported in 

 favor of conferring the recognition for 1896 on Professor Giovanni 

 Capellini of Bologna. 



Giovanni Capellini was born in Spezia, August 23, 1833. He 

 studied in the college of his native city and in the University of 

 Pisa. While yet a student he had made important paleontological 

 discoveries and was in correspondence with illustrious scientists, 

 both Italian and foreign. 



After obtaining his degree in science he made frequent trips in 

 France, England, Switzerland, Belgium and Germany. In Sep- 

 tember, 1859, he was appointed Professor of Natural History in the 

 National College of Genoa. 



In September of the following year he was made Professor of 

 Geology and Paleontology in the University of Bologna. 



In 1863 he visited North America. The rich collections then 

 made by him in Nebraska and elsewhere are now in the Geological 

 Institute of Bologna. In 1864 he made interesting scientific discov- 

 eries in the petroleum lands of Wallachia. 



As President of the Second Extraordinary Reunion of the Italian 

 Naturalists in Spezia in 1865, he founded the International Congress 

 of Anthropology and Prehistoric Archeology. 



In 1872 he travelled in Greece, and in the autumn took an im- 

 portant part in the International Anthropological Congresses in 

 Brussels. He then travelled in Switzerland, Holland, Austria, 

 Hungary, Germany, Spain and Portugal, and returned through 

 France and England. 



He was made Vice-President of the First International Geologi- 

 cal Congress in Paris in 1878, and obtained its assent that the 

 second meeting should take place in Bologna in 1881. Elected 

 actual President (in conjunction with Quintino Sella as honorary 

 President) of this Congress, he inaugurated the commission for the 

 unification of geological nomenclature and a commission for the 

 production of a geological map of Europe, outlined at Berlin. To- 

 gether with Sella, he founded, on that occasion, the Italian Geologi- 

 32 



