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OBITUARY. 



GIULIO ANDREA PIRONA. 

 Born at Dignana Nov. 20, 1822. Died at Udine Dec. 28, 1895. 



BOTANIST, geologist, zoologist, and philologist, Professor Pirona 

 was an excellent type of the old school of naturalists. Having 

 received his youthful education in Udine, at the hands of the professor 

 abate Jacopo Pirona, he passed to the University of Padua, where he 

 took his degree in medicine, and served for some years as assistant to 

 the professor. He then became professor of natural history at the 

 Lyceum of Udine, and, while yet young, was elected a member of 

 the Venetian Institute of Science, Literature, and Art, of which he 

 was the president during the last two years, and in the Atti of which 

 many of his works were published. 



The greater part of Pirona's work was connected with his beloved 

 native district of Friuli. He began as botanist, and his " Synopsis " 

 of the Friuli flora, and " Vocabolario botanico friulano " summarise 

 the labours of many excursions, patient determinations, discoveries of 

 new species, and observations of facts of distribution. His rambles 

 through the country led him naturally to the investigation of its rocks, 

 and his early studies in this direction were benefited by the com- 

 panionship of the Austrian geologist, Foetterle. Thus originated the 

 " Lettere geognostiche sul Friuli," " Cenni geognostiche " (1861), and 

 a sketch geological map that formed a secure foundation for the more 

 detailed work of subsequent observers. He also elucidated the 

 structure of the Euganean Hills, collaborated in a monograph on tlie 

 Bellunese Earthquake of 1873, and, in conjunction with Professors 

 Taramelli and Tommasi, studied the earthquake of Tolmezzo in 1889, 

 and the water-supply of Udine. Here, too, may be mentioned his 

 " Monografia delle acque minerali del Veneto" (1862-3). His exami- 

 nation of the rocks led to an important series of papers on their 

 fossil contents, and especially on those curious molluscs known as 

 Hippurites. Both as accurate collector and learned describer he 

 made valuable contributions to the Jurassic and Cretaceous palaeon- 

 tology of Italy. But Pirona's knowledge of molluscs was not confined 

 to their extinct representatives, as we learn from his " Prospetto dei 

 Molluschi terrestri e fluviatili finora raccolti nel Friuli" (1864-5). ^^^ 

 claim to the title of philologist is based on the " Vocabolario della 

 Lingua Friulana," which gained a prize from the Government. His 

 scientific attainments, and the share that he took in the municipal life 

 of Udine, gained for Pirona, in 1870, the post of Conservator of the 

 Civic Library and Museum, a post which he held till his death. 



Pirona may be summed up in the words contributed by his 

 eminent colleague. Professor Torquato Taramelli, to La Patria del 



