December 30, 1920] 



NATURE 



57. 



Obituary. 



Prof. Italo Giglioli. 



AMONG the famous band of workers who 

 built up a scientinc agricuhure in the nine- 

 teenth century the name of Italo Giglioli will 

 take a high place, not only for what he did him- 

 self, but also for what he inspired others to do. 

 Both his father and bis grandfather had become 

 exiles from Italy in the turbulent days of the early 

 revolutions ; the father came to Edinburgh, took a 

 medical degree, and then settled in London to 

 practise. Ihe revolution of 1848 attracted him 

 back to Italy, where, in 1852, at Genoa, a son 

 was born to him to whom the name Italo was 

 given as the first to be born in the native land. 



Italo Giglioli devoted himself to the teaching 

 of scientific agriculture, which he believed to be 

 his country's great need. He was elected pro- 

 fessor at the age of twenty-four, and taught, first 

 at I'ortici, and then at I'isa, where he stayed until 

 his death, on October i, at sixty -eight years of 

 age, playing a great part in the development of 

 these two schools to their present honourable posi- 

 tion. For this work he was well fitted. He had 

 an unusually good knowledge of English and of 

 other languages besides his own, and was 

 thoroughly familiar not only with the investiga- 

 tions of Lawes and Gilbert at Rothamsted and of 

 other British agriculturists, but also with the 

 French and German work. In 1888 he drew up a 

 long report for the Italian Ministry of Agriculture 

 on British agricultural education {Annali di Agri- 

 coUura: Educaeione Agraria Britannica, Rome, 

 1888), written with full knowledge, and con- 

 taining much information that the student 

 could obtain elsewhere only with difliculty. 

 He kept up his interest in English investiga- 

 tions throughout his working life, and was usuallv 

 appealed to by English workers who desired in- 

 formation about Italian agriculture. 



Giglioli 's published work covers a wide range; 

 on the physiological side it deals with the func- 

 tions of essential oils in plants (/?. Accad. dei 

 lAncei, igii, vol. xx.); the biological absorption 

 of methane, in which he confirmed the conclusion 

 of Sahngen and Kaserer that methane is oxidised 

 by certain micro-organisms (Siudi c Richcrchc, 

 I'isa. fas. 22, 1909-14)4 and the resistance of 

 seeds to chemical agents. It is not, however, 

 .is a worker on abstract laboratory problems that 

 Giglioli will be remembered. His more important 

 investigations were on the agricultural side. He 

 • arried out experiments at the Experimental 

 Station at Suessola on the cultivation of wheat, 

 •summarised in " II Frumcnto : sue varicti e con- 

 rimi" (Portici, 1888), and in later reports. 

 In these he dealt with varieties, manuring, and 

 such special cultural treatments as the effect of 

 electrification, of manganese, etc. He also dealt 

 with the cultivation of the cork tree (" La cultura 

 del Sughero," Portici, 1902); the effects of chem- 

 ical manures in arid climates ; phylloxera ; and 

 silage — all important subjects in Italian agriculture. 



Giglioli 's best work was probably as a teacher, 

 and some of the tributes paid by his students are 

 very touching. His book, "Chimica agraria cam- 

 pestre e silvana " (Naples, 1884 onwards to 1902), 

 was much used in Italy. The more general agri- 

 cultural questions are discussed in his well-known 

 " Malessere agrario ed alimentare in Italia " 

 (Portici, 1903J. This contains probably the best 

 available summary of Italian agricultural con- 

 ditions in comparison with those of other 

 countries, and also an examination of the causes 

 and possible remedies for agricultural distress. 



Giglioli 's death severs a link between British 

 and Italian agriculturists, and is equally regretted 

 in both countries. It is the hope of all concerned 

 that the close relationship for which he strove 

 may be maintained and strengthened. 



E. J. Russell. 



Dr. C. a. Sadler. 



Dr. Charles A. Sadler was a student at 

 Liverpool in the early days of the University 

 there. After graduating with honours in 

 physics (1905), he joined Prof. Barkla — then lec- 

 turer in the University — in his investigations of 

 the secondary rays emitted by substances exposed 

 to Rontgen radiation. Sadler's introduction to 

 the work was made in a detailed investigation of 

 the absorption of the characteristic X-radiations. 



The results of these researches were published 

 by Barkla and Sadler in a series of papers in the 

 Philosophical Magazine dealing principally with 

 the laws of X-ray absorption, the homogeneity 

 of the characteristic radiations, and the relation 

 between the characteristic radiations and the 

 atomic weights of the chemical elements emitting 

 them. .Sadler afterwards (while holding the 

 Oliver Lodge fellowship) continued the investiga- 

 tion of the energy of the characteristic radiations 

 by an accurate and detailed examination of these 

 radiations from several elements. He also ap- 

 plied Townsend's method to a study of the second- 

 ary corpuscular radiation, and found that a certain 

 portion of this radiation was associated with the 

 characteristic X-radiation. 



In 191 1 Sadler was appointed lecturer in 

 physics at University College, Reading. There 

 he became interested in mechanical work, and in 

 1915 he turned his skill to good account by organ- 

 ising most successfully a training centre for muni- 

 tion workers.. Shortly before the armistice he 

 left academic work to undertake research of a 

 technical character with Messrs. Allen and Sim- 

 monds, of Reading. This work was, however, cut 

 short by a breakdown in health, followed by his 

 early death on December 5. 



Sadler's interest and skill In trechanicat 

 methods were exceptional. He was an able ex- 

 perimenter, an accurate observer, an indefatigable 

 worker. These gifts were very highly '-'-firrnrd 

 bv tho.se with whom he collaborated. 



