December 8, 1910] 



NATURE 



/ 



Another subject of study was plethysmography. A. 

 Kick previously had used a pletnysmograph lo study 

 variations in uie volume of an organ, .\losso, under 

 Ludwig's direction, modified this apparatus, and made 

 an elaborate study on the alterations of the volume of 

 the human limbs under various conditions, mental and 

 physical, or with intellectual work, for the volume of 

 a iimb does vary with mental work, as Mosso con- 

 clusivelv snowed. Later on, years after his return to 

 Italv, in 1884, he published his famous paper on 

 application of the balance to the study of the circula- 

 tion in man. He constructed a balance so subtle that 

 when a person was extended on it and delicately 

 poised, mental work caused the head end to descend 

 from an afHux of blood towards the brain. 



In 1876, after his return to Italy, Mosso became 

 professor of pharmacology in Turin. In 1880, when 

 -Moleschott was called to fill the chair of physiology in 

 Rome, Mosso succeeded his old teacher as professor 

 of physiology in Tyrin, a post he held with the highest 

 distinction until his death. During the last few 

 years illness incapacitated him from working in his 

 laboratory, a matter of the acutest mental anguish to 

 one whose untiring brain had ever new problems to 

 investigate and solve. 



The fact that in search after health he was able to 

 devote his enforced leisure to the study of the result 

 of excavations made in Sicily, and, above all, in Crete, 

 was some compensation. He has left behind him a 

 standard work on prehistoric anthropologv in his 

 ■' Palaces of Crete," published in English in 1907. 

 His first laboracorj- was in a convent, but his bound- 

 less activity, productiveness, and the increase in the 

 number of scholars, as well as the growing import- 

 ance of his subject, led the Government to provide him 

 with a palatial laboraton,-, one of the finest, most 

 artistic, and aesthetic and best equipped in Europe. 

 In 1882, along with Prof. Emery, he founded the well- 

 known ".Archives italiennes de Biologic," in which 

 many of his now classical investigations were pub- 

 lished. The first volume contains, Bizzozero's article 

 on the blood platelets, and that of Mosso and Pella- 

 cani on the movements of the bladder. His unrivalled 

 activity found vent in many directions in physiologv ; 

 nor was this all. He was elected a senator, and often 

 travelled to Rome to Monte Citorio to attend to his 

 parliamentary duties, returning at night to undertake 

 his more academic duties in Turin next morning. 



The physiology of respiration early, and indeed con- 

 stantly, occupied his attention. He studied the rela- 

 tions between abdominal and thoracic movements in 

 1878, periodic respiration, Cheyne-Stokes breathing in 

 1886. He had a special laboratorv in the Regina 

 Margherita hut on the top of Alonte Rosa, j;;6o 

 metres above sea level, for the study of life at high 

 altitudes, and the results of his prolonged and arduous 

 labours he published in his " Life of Man on the High 

 Alps," which was translated into English in 1898. 

 As human beings cannot live much more than two 

 months ar a time in these altitudes, he had a fully- 

 equipped laboratory erected on Cold'olen at 3000 

 metres, where much phvsiological, phvsical, and 

 biological work was done. 



In his "Diagnostik des Pulses" (1879) he made a 

 careful study of the pulse, and in 1895 he invented 

 his sphygmo-manometer for the study of the blood 

 pressure in man. Amongst the most interesting of 

 his studies on the circulation are those on that oif the 

 brain. The temperature and psvchical activities of 

 this organ he studied in 1894, and the researches 

 formed part of the subject of his Croonian lectures in 

 1892. 



Perhaps his work best known in this country is that 

 on fatigue— translated into French, German, and 

 NO. 2145, VOL. 85] 



English — as studied by the use of his ergograph, a 

 most valuable contribution, written with a charm of 

 diction that one rarely finds in physiological memoirs. 

 Mosso was a master of style, happy in his phraseology, 

 wide and catholic in his literal tastes, a keen and 

 loyal admirer of the poets of his beloved Italy. The 

 bust of Dante was always present on his laboratory 

 writing-table. His interesting work on " La Paura " 

 (" Fear ") was also translated into English. Amongst 

 his other popular writings are " L'Education physiquf 

 de la jeunesse," '" Les E.xercises physiques et k 

 developpement intellectuel," and " Materialismo et 

 Misticismo." 



.\mongst his chemical investigations the best known 

 are those on ptomaines (with Guaresche, in 1882). and 

 the discovery of the fluorescent serum and the power- 

 ful toxic venin — which he called ichthyotoxin — which- 

 occurs in the blood of the Murinideae, such as the 

 conger eel. 



In Angelo Mosso the world loses a great and dis- 

 tinguished physiologist, who was beloved by all who 

 knew him, was venerated by his pupils, and' 

 by his work, both in its theoretical and its prac- 

 tical applications, secured for himself a reputation as 

 an investigator and expositor such as to place him 

 alongside that illustrious galaxy of his countrvmen 

 who have added so much to the domain of natural 

 knowledge. 



JULES TANNERY. 



T^HE unexpected death of M. Jules Tannery on. 

 ■■■ November 11, at the age of seventy-two, will be 

 sincerely regretted by a much larger circle of admirers 

 than he would have anticipated. He belonged to a. 

 type of mathematician which is not too common, be- 

 cause he was at the same time an original thinker, a. 

 successful teacher, and a writer endowed with an un- 

 usually clear, brilliant, and attractive stvle. 



In England, at any rate, he is probably best known 

 by his mathematical text-books. Of these, tht 

 "Lemons sur I'Arithmetique " is a masterpiece in it- 

 way, combining rigour of method with a charming 

 lucidity and ease; the "Traite sur la theorie des 

 fonctions elliptiques " (written in conjunction with M. 

 Molk), is one of the best works on the subject suited 

 for a beginner; while the value of his '•Introduction 

 a la theorie des fonctions " is shown by the fact that 

 a second and revised edition has recentlv appeared. 

 Tannery was essentially an arithmetician, and one 

 main object of his work on function-theory is to show 

 that (as Dirichht asserted) all its results are deducibi ■ 

 from the notion of a whole number. A more philo- 

 sophical work, dealing with the same class of ideas, 

 is his '■ Role du nombre dans les sciences." which he 

 appears to have regarded as his greatest work. A- 

 might be expected, he took a part in the controversies 

 aroused by Cantor's invention of transfinite numbers. 

 M. Picard, in announcing the death of their col- 

 league to the Academy of Sciences, referred in appre- 

 ciative terms to the notices of mathematical works 

 and memoirs contributed by Tannery to the Bulletin 

 des Sciences matheniatiques. He said :— " Elles ne 

 sont pas toutes signees, mais on ne peut s'v tromper, 

 car elles portent sa marque si personnelle.' En le^ 

 reunissant, on aurait un tableau fidele d'une partie 

 importante du mouvement mathematique dans ces 

 vingt-cinq dernieres annees." 



Tannery's last official post was that of vice-principal 

 of the Higher Normal School, and he was elected an 

 .Academician in 1907. M. Picard bears witness to his 

 amiable, witty, and engaging character in private life 



G. B. M. 



