306 Mary Somerville. 



sion of her family. A German professor of physio- 

 logy at Florence roused public indignation by his 

 barbarous vivisections, and there was a canvass 

 for a Memorial against this cruel practice. Miss 

 Cobbe took a leading part in this movement, and I 

 heartily joined, and wrote to all my acquaintances, 

 requesting their votes ; among others, to a certain 

 Marchese, who had published something on agricul- 

 ture. He refused his vote, saying, " Perhaps I was 

 not aware that the present state of science was one 

 of induction." Then he went on explaining to me what 

 " induction" meant, &c., &c., which amused me not a 

 little. It made my family very indignant, as they 

 thought it eminently presumptuous, addressed to me 

 by a man who, though a good patriot and agricul- 

 turist, knew nothing whatever about science, past or 

 present. A good deal of political party spirit was 

 brought into play in this instance, as is too often the 

 case here. It is not complimentary to the state of 

 civilization in Italy, that in Eussia and Poland, both 

 of them very far behind her in many respects, there 

 should exist societies for the prevention of cruelty to 

 animals, to which all the most distinguished people 

 have given their names. 



[I rejoice to say that this stain on Italian civilisation 

 is now wiped away. My mother just lived to hail the 

 formation of the Societa Protettrice degli Anirnali. ED. 



