242 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



by Joseph II. with a gold medal. The return home was a 

 triumphal progress, for on reaching Pavia he was met and 

 acclaimed outside the city gates by numbers of his students 

 and escorted by them through the streets. 



It is a well-known fact that the museum at Pavia was 

 founded by Spallanzani. As he himself claimed, it had been 

 born under his hands, it had grown under his direction, and 

 owed its prosperity to his correspondence, activity, and travels. 

 Now during Spallanzani 's absence in Turkey, Canon Volta, 

 acting as curator of the museum, made the discovery that 

 several objects, though mentioned in the catalogue, were missing 

 from the museum. Volta, alas ! was among the few who 

 knew that at Scandiano the professor owned a private museum. 

 So, pretending to set out on an excursion to Tuscany, Volta 

 went to Scandiano and, under a false name, asked to see the 

 Spallanzani Museum. On coming out, he went straight to 

 an inn and made a note of all he had seen. He next wrote 

 to Counsellor don Luigi Lambertenghi in Milan informing 

 him that the numerous objects missing from the museum 

 at Pavia were to be found in Spallanzani 's Museum in Scan- 

 diano, and that some of the objects were still marked with their 

 original numbers, the jars for the most part having the red labels 

 of the jars at Pavia. He requested the Counsellor to see that 

 the Government verified his assertions. He also gave information 

 to the Supreme Ecclesiastical Commission and the Commission 

 of Studies, and in Pavia he talked frequently of " Spallanzani 's 

 thefts," so that the scandal soon came to be divulged. 



Professors Scopoli, Scarpa, and Fontana were also drawn 

 into the conspiracy, which went to the incredible length of 

 sending to persons in authority, to Spallanzani's friend Bonnet, 

 to Tissot and others, to the heads of the Italian Universities, 

 and generally of distributing throughout the continent, a 

 circular informing the world at large of the " unexpected," 

 " ignominious," " atrocious " crime of their famous colleague. 



The motive actuating these men was said to be envy of 

 Spallanzani's eminence as a man of science, intensified by their 

 fear of showing it on account of his influence at court. Prob- 

 ably, Spallanzani's own intolerant attitude towards his intel- 

 lectual inferiors was scarcely likely to adjust matters. " What 

 wonder," he exclaims, speaking of Pavia, " that in districts so 

 low, so foggy, so marshy, talents are so rare." 



