552 THE ABBE FONTANA [1784. 



you may think proper, and testify your desire of doing anything 

 in your power to serve that grand Institution. 



If agreeable, I will inclose your letter in one I shall write to the 

 Abbe. You must not be concerned on account of your writing in 

 English. I think this gentleman has been in England, and is suf- 

 ficiently acquainted with the language to understand it, though not 

 to write it with correctness. 



Any little collection you may send to my care, shall be for- 

 warded. 



I am your assured friend, 



Geokge Logan. 



Philadelphia, August 26th, 1783. 



THE ABBE FONTANA* TO H. MARSHALL. 



Pisa, in Tuscany, 16th January, 1784. 



Sir: 



It is with a great pleasure that I have received through Captain 

 Humphr. Williams, the favour of your letters, and the two boxes 

 of American plants, which you was so good to forward to us; 

 which came almost all alive, and hope they will thrive well in our 

 country. Captain Williams may inform you by what accident I 

 am not in Florence now ; and consequently it is not in my power 

 to send you anything, except few seeds that I shall endeavour to 

 get from the garden of the University, reserving to me self the 

 pleasur to send you something more by the first occasion. How- 

 ever, I must confess to you the greatest gratitude and obligation, 



* Felix Fontana, an eminent Italian philosopher and naturalist, was born at 

 Pomarolo, in the Italian Tyrol, in 1730. Having completed his studies at the 

 Universities of Padua and Bologna, he went to Rome, and thence to Florence. 

 The Grand Duke, Francis (afterwards Emperor), appointed him Professor of 

 Natural Philosophy in the University of Pisa. The Grand Duke Leopold (after- 

 wards Emperor Leopold II.), invited him to Florence, but permitted him to retain 

 bis office at Pisa, and employed him in forming the Cabinet of the Natural 

 Sciences, which is yet one of the ornaments of the Florentine capital. 



Fontana is the author of several works on scientific subjects, one of the best 

 known of which is a Treatise on Poisons. His writings show him to have been an 

 ingenious and indefatigable observer. 



The political principles which he avowed during the events of 1799, in Tus- 

 cany, involved him in some difficulties. He died in 1805 ; and was buried in the 

 Church of Santa Croce, by the side of Galileo and Viviani. See Encyclopaedia 

 Americana. 



