804 EDMONDO DE AMICIS. 



was their due. At the same time he spent much time and thought on 

 the construction of an exceedingly accurate barometer, by means of 

 which he could measure atmospheric pressure with great precision 

 and thus obtain yet more accurate values for the boiling points of 

 various substances which should serve as standards. 



In viewing collectively the outcome of Professor Crafts's varied 

 work, one may note that much of it, both physical and organic, had 

 as its object the providing of means and methods for further adA-ance, 

 of use to others in many fields. Those whose labor is lightened, 

 broadened, and simplified by the important contributions of his 

 scientific imagination and of his persistent, effective research in the 

 laboratory are deeply grateful for the indispensable aid which he 

 rendered, and will be, far into the future. His intimates mourn a 

 generous, loyal, high-minded friend, whose vigorous intellect always 

 turned toward worthy ends. 



Theodore W. Richards. 



EDMONDO DE AMICIS (1846-1908) 



Foreign Honorary Member in Class IH, Section 4, 1901. 



Edmondo De Amicis was born at Oneglia, a little town on the sea- 

 coast southeast of Genoa, October 21, 1846. Having attended school 

 at Cuneo and Turin, he went to the Military Academy at Modena, 

 from which in 1865, he was appointed Second Lieutenant of the Third 

 Regiment of the Line. The following year he took part in the Battle 

 of Custozza. In 1867 he became managing editor of Italia Miliiarc, 

 an important military journal published at Florence. To this he 

 contributed many sketches of the life actually li^'ed by Italian soldiers 

 and officers, and when these were reprinted in a volume with the title 

 "La Vita Militare" in 1868, they gave him an immediate popularity 

 which went on widening until his death. They had also real influence 

 in improving the conditions of the soldiers, by moderating the harsh- 

 ness of their discipline, a harshness then common in European armies. 

 De Amicis continued to edit the Journal for some time and he remained 

 in the ItaUan army until 1871. He was present when Cadorna's 

 troops entered by the Porta Pia and freed Rome from Papal rule 

 September 20, 1870. After resigning from the service he devoted 

 himself to literature, making Turin his headquarters and he was, with 



