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Biographical Notice of Leopold Pilla, the Geologist. By 

 H. COQUAND.* Communicated by the Author. 



Again, to bring to your recollection the numerous works 

 which have placed Pilla among the most eminent geologists 

 of Italy, is to do honour to the memory of an associate, whose 

 recent loss we lament, by bestowing well-merited praises on 

 the greatness of mind in a citizen, who nobly sacrificed a life 

 already illustrious, and which the future proniised to render 

 still more so, to the good of his country. Yes, Italy has 

 always been tellus magna virum ! The chances of war, the 

 rage of civil discord, the insults of foreign domination, may 

 have eclipsed its political name, but they could not extinguish 

 its genius. The blast of revolutions has respected the triple 

 halo with which the sciences, letters, and the arts, have 

 adorned its brow. By entrusting to one of his friends the 

 task of enumerating his scientific labours, the Society im- 

 poses on him a very painful duty ; but he undertakes it with 

 feeling and gratitude ; for the public homage rendered to the 

 virtues of those whom we have loved, seems to bring them 

 back to us, and softens the awards of destiny, which has too 

 soon snatched them from us. 



Leopold Pilla was born in the kingdom of Naples. While 

 still young, the exciting scenes of Vesuvius attracted his at- 

 tention, and determined his scientific career. In 1832, he 

 undertook to write the annals of this volcano, and gave its 

 history in two periodical collections. t It was at this period 

 that he proved the production of flames in volcanic eruptions, 

 and deduced from thence the ingenious conclusions which 

 you judged worthy of a place in your memoirs. J This re- 

 markable work, which of itself would have been sufficient to 

 establish his scientific reputation, was soon followed by 

 numerous others, which shed a new lustre on his name. The 



*Read to the Geological Society of France, at their meeting on the ]6th of 

 April 1849. 



t Spettatore del Vesuvio et BuUetino del Vesuvio. Napoli, 1832. 



X Sopra la produzione delle fiamme nei vulcani, e sopra le consequenze che 

 se ne possono tirare. Atti del Congresso di Lucca, 1845. 



