BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF ANTHONY SCARPA. 



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Scarpa, in modern times, is in all probability the man who^'as 

 a physiologist and surgeon, has acquired the greatest and most e>^- 

 tensive reputation. His name was not merely European ; it was 

 spread over the world : his discoveries in anatomy and surgery 

 have been every where viewed with admiration ; they have been 

 every where useful. His works have been translated into, and 

 commented upon, in every language. He has left the most pro4 

 found sentiments of love and veneration in the hearts of his nu- 

 merous disciples, and, at the same time, seeds which have every 

 where produced good fruit. There is hardly a society, literary 

 or scientific, who have not regarded it as an honour to be con- 

 nected with him, and on the death of Sir Humphry Davy, he 

 was named one of the eight learned foreign associates of the 

 French Institute. Honours, titles, and rewards of cirowned 

 heads, were transmitted to him in his retreat. The necessity 

 of repose, the diminution of his physical powers, especially of 

 sight, induced him to renounce practice, and retire to nis 

 magnificent country-house, where, surrounded by one of the 

 finest collections of pictures, objects of art, and antiquities, 

 he portioned out his time among the muses, fine arts, agricul- 

 ture, anatomy, and surgery, which he never ceased, even at his 

 great age, to enrich with some original idea or some new dis- 

 covery. ' 



Till the last moment of his life, he retained a perfect sefeiiiy, 

 and that astonishing intellectual vigour which had been so' ad- 

 vantageous to him during his life ; he died at the age of S5, in 

 the arms of ||iis pupils, — of the illustrious professors whom his 

 scientific knowledge had connected with the University of Pavia. 

 The heirs of his talents never quitted him for an instant during 

 the malady which carried him "off; they paid their master, friend, 

 and adopted father, the most assiduous and affectionate atten- 

 tion ; by their anxiety and gratitude they adorned the latter mo- 

 ments of the man to whom they were indebted for their acquire- 

 ments, and the honourable situations they occupy in the Ticinian 



