Dec. 9, 1 875 J 



NA TURE 



III 



ciated with Faraday, Tyndall, and a host of modern 

 Italian physicists, whose names we are sorry to say are 

 not so familiar to us. Prof. G. Cantoni's numerous papers, 

 the titles of some of which are given in translation aljove 

 refer to minute but interesting points in connection with 

 the electrophorus and condenser, in which certain views 

 of Beccaria (1769) and of Volta (1775) are revived and 

 defended and connected with Faraday's theory of elec- 

 trical induction and the action of the Holtz machine. 

 The title at the head of our list refers, not to papers read 

 before the Lombard Academy, as in the case of the last 

 five, but to a neat little pamphle": which gives an account 

 of forty-nine experiments, and the inference to be drawn 

 from each one, and illustrated by a number of wood en- 

 gravings representing the arrangement of the apparatus. 

 One portion of the object of these papers is to confirm and 

 extend Faraday's beautiful theory. Indeed, the subject, 

 with the exception of the Holtz machine, has been so ex- 

 tensively investigated by Faraday, Snow Harris, and 

 others, that we do not feel called upon to give an analysis 

 of these ingenious papers. Among the instruments for 

 estimating charge we miss the elegant scale beam electro- 

 meter, the hydrostatic electrometer, the electrical balance, 

 the unit jar, and other instruments contrived by Harris 

 and used by him with so much effect. Indeed, Harris's 

 last work on " Frictional Electricity" (1867) seems to be 

 unknown to the Italian physicists. In this work some of 

 the points in question have already been considered expe- 

 rimentally. 



Signer Nardi's first pamphlet is a curious exemplifi- 

 cation of the dearth of original scientific research to which 

 we refer. When men have but little of their own, they 

 are proud of the wealth of their ancestors. We do not 

 say this is wrong, although its expression sometimes takes 

 an amusing form. Thus, our author, who is Director of 

 the Royal School of Technology at Vicenza, in his visits 

 to the museum of that town, frequently cast an admiring 

 eye on certain cases that contained some of the apparatus 

 of the physicist Fusinieri, who in his own day occupied a 

 respectable position in science, and whose results, when 

 true, have since been absorbed into the great body of 

 science. Hence his name is not much known out of 

 Italy ; but, in his native town, his memory is naturally and 

 very properly cherished ; so that, when holding a cen- 

 tenax)' festival in honour of his birth, in February last, the 

 good citizens of Vicenza were naturally grateful to be 

 reminded as forcibly as possible of the genius of their 

 hero. Our author had long regarded these reUcs with 

 curiosity, until, stimulated by the prospect of this festival, 

 he felt an ardent desire to accomplish something. He 

 says: — "The exquisite politeness of the keepers of this 

 museum, first, that of Monsignor Pietro Canonico Doctor 

 Marasca, and then that of Monsignor Ludovico Canonico 

 Gonzati, threw open to me the sanctuary [that is, they 

 unlocked the cases]. Their encouragement imparted to 

 me the courage to do something, which I now publish in 

 time for the public festival, which I may emphatically 

 term national, in honour of him who is now revered as 

 one of the most eminent physicists of this age." 



Guided by the published collected works of Fusinieri, our 

 author examines every article and fragment of the imper- 

 fect collection thus thrown open to his inspection. No 

 devotee before the shrine of a saint could display more 

 ardour. If successful in tracing a bit of apparatus to its 

 original use, he is in ecstasy ; if unsuccessful, in despair. 

 He has no misgivings as to the originality of his hero, or 

 as to his absolute superiority in all the varied controver- 

 sies in which he was engaged. Perhaps the most memo- 

 rable of these (and to which the second pamphlet above 

 cited is devoted) is on some of those obscure catalytic 

 phenomena in which chemical combination is effected by 

 means of certain soUds which themselves escape appa- 

 rently unchanged. Signor Nardi claims for Fusinieri 

 the merit of having refuted Faraday's theory on this 



point, and of establishing the true theory on a sound 

 basis. And what is this theory? It is, that "platina 

 determines upon its surface a continual renovation of 

 concrete lambttx of the combustible substance of the 

 gases or vapours, which, flow.ng over it, are burnt, pass 

 away, and are renewed : this combustion at the surface 

 raises and sustains the temperature of the metal." Fara- 

 day, in his sixth series of " Electrical Researches " (S^ov. 

 1833), in referring to this theory and its author, says :— 

 " I cannot form a distinct idea of the power to which he 

 refers the phenomena," Certainly the revived discussion 

 of the theory has not tended to throw more light upon it. 

 Considering the wide range of subjects that occupied 

 Fusinieri's attention from the date of his first publication 

 in 1819 to that of his latest in 1850, we must speak in 

 the highest terms of his industry. His works, collected 

 into three large volumes, contain memoirs on Geometry, 

 the Mechanical Sciences, the Electrical Sciences, Terres- 

 trial Magnetism, Optics, Heat, Meteorology, Astronomy, 

 Chemistry, and Molecular Mechanics. But it is sur- 

 prising how little influence all this labour had on science 

 in general. We seldom meet with Fusinieri's name out 

 of Italy ; and the reason is, not that science is unjust, but 

 that she is stern, and requires discovery to be both new 

 and true, before she welcomes the discoverer. Now it 

 must be confessed that Fusinieri is not original In his 

 best work there is always something reflected from a 

 greater mind than his own. One of his most striking 

 experiments is to show the repulsive force of heat, for 

 which purpose two slightly convex surfaces of glass are 

 screwed together, so as to exhibit Newton's rings, and 

 heat being applied, the rings contract, and the central 

 tint descends in the scale, until the whole vanishes. But 

 in so capital a result as this we are reminded of Fresnel, 

 while the actual experiment was performed by Badea 

 Powell two years before the date of Fusinieri's paper. 

 Fresnel dates from 1825, Powell 1835, Fusinieri 1837 ; 

 and yet Signor Nardi attaches an inscription to the lenses 

 in the museum to the indefinice effect that " Long before 

 1837, Fusinieri made with these and other glasses the 

 discovery of the repulsion of heated bodies." In like 

 manner Fusinieri has a long series of researches on the 

 cause of the colour in metals exposed to heat, while Davy 

 decided by a single experiment that it is due to oxidation. 

 He inclosed a bright surface of steel in an atmosphere of 

 nitrogen, heated it, and there was no colour ; he raised it 

 to the same temperature in air, and colour was imme- 

 diately produced. Fusinieri's theories may be more 

 original than his facts, but then they are not accepted. 

 His best known theory is perhaps that which confers a 

 material body on electricity, because it is capable of con- 

 veying matter from place to place, and varying its proper- 

 ties with tlie kind of matter conveyed and acted on. Nor 

 is his theory of dew, in opposition to that of Wells, more 

 favourably received. Our author laments that Wells's 

 theory is the result of a series of illusions, which has 

 seduced many, and he regrets that the latest sad example 

 of this leading astray is in the case of one John Tyndall, 

 who is so infatuated as to believe in Wells ; and yet this 

 theory which was so clamorously received and crowned 

 by the Royal Society depends merely on a spider's 

 thread ! 



Much of the science of Fusinieri arose out of the 

 questions of the day, and it is to his credit, considering 

 the difficulties of his position, that he endeavoured to 

 keep pace with the scientific mind of his time. He is, 

 however, eminently controversial, disputing whenever 

 opportunity offered, and persisting in his views, even 

 though all, his fellow-countrymen included, are s gainst 

 him, his last opponent being Melloni, He is also very 

 sanguine, and fancies he has solved great and difficult 

 questions, should a single experiment turn out satisfac- 

 torily to himself. Thus, when by the action of light on 

 an acid solution of ferrocyanide of potassium he obtained 



