May 6, 1897] 



NATURE 



•series of homologous amides of considerable theoretic 

 interest. Congenial and inspiriting as the atmosphere 

 of Paris might be, man cannot live on air alone, 

 liut there were too many young and eager aspirants, 

 of French nationality, for the few posts which prac- 

 tically only Paris was able to offer, to justify the 

 hope that the young Sicilian could obtain a posi- 

 tion, sufficiently lucrative even for his modest require- 

 ments, in the land of his exile. Piedmont, of all the 

 Italian States, could alone afford an asylum to him, and 

 accordingly, towards the end of 185 1, he accepted the 

 position of Professor of Physical Chemistry and 

 Mechanics in the National College of Alessandria, an 

 institution modelled somewhat on the lines of a German 

 Realschule. Here, thanks to the action of the niunici- 

 pality, he was provided with a small laboratory, together 

 with an assistant, and, although much occupied by his 

 public lectures on chemistry and mechanics given to the 

 townspeople, in addition to his regular class instruction, 

 he began the study of the action of alkylamines on 

 cyanogen chloride, only to find himself forestalled by 

 Cloez and Cahours. At about the same time he dis- 

 covered benzyl alcohol, which he obtained by the action 

 of alcoholic potash on bitter almond oil, and the proper- 

 lies and modes of decomposition of \vhich he described 

 in a series of letters to Liebig and Wohler, published in 

 the Annalen. His vacations were usually spent with 

 Piria at Pisa, or at Montignoso, near Massa- Carrara, 

 with his old collaborateur Bertagnini, with whom he 

 worked on anisic alcohol {Ann. de Chimie, xlvii. 285). 



In October 1855, he was called to the chair of Chem- 

 istry at the University of Genoa, and at the same 

 time Piria was moved from Pisa to Turin. Although the 

 new position at Genoa was one of greater dignity and 

 emolument, Cannizzaro found himself, so far as labora- 

 tory accommodation was concerned, less favourably 

 situated than at Alessandria ; the only place at his 

 disposal was a damp and dimly-lighted room, without the 

 slightest convenience for even the most elementary 

 experiments. For some months he found it impossible 

 to carry on the work he had begun at Alessandria. In 

 the following year he obtained a room on the upper floor 

 of -the University building, and this, with the aid of an 

 assistant and a couple of pupils, he turned iVito a fairly 

 convenient laboratory, where he resumed his work on the 

 aromatic alcohols. At Genoa Cannizzaro began the 

 studies on chemical philosophy, which were to culminate 

 in the great generalisation with which his name will con- 

 tinue to be associated. Admirable as his experimental 

 labours are, his chief claim to the esteem and gratitude 

 of his contemporaries and of posterity rests upon his 

 critical contributions to the philosophy of chemistry. 

 In what this signal service consisted will be shown 

 subsequently. 



During the whole of this time Italy was in a state of 

 political ferment. The astute Cavour had gradually 

 secured his ascendancy in the parliamentary Councils of 

 the little Sardinian kingdom, and with it his position in 

 the Councils of Europe. Slowly, and in spite of many 

 checks, the cause of Italian unity gained ground. 

 Magenta and Solferino secured Lombardy, and although 

 Victor Emmanuel was forced to give up Savoy, the very 

 cradle of his dynasty, as the price of Louis Napoleon's 

 NO. 1436. VOL. 56] 



co-operation, Italy gained Tuscany, Modena, Parma and 

 Romagna ; and in i860 the annexation of Central Italy 

 was complete. Bombino still held his grip on the two 

 Sicilies, but the islanders made one more effort to throw 

 off the hateful yoke. The time seemed propitious, and 

 Palermo, Messina and Catania were soon ablaze ; and 

 before the middle of May, Garibaldi and his famous 

 "Mille" had accomplished the liberation of the island. 

 Cannizzaro immediately returned to Palermo. He found 

 here his aged mother and sisters, whom he had not seen 

 since 1849, and at once threw himself into the labour of 

 organising and consolidating the work of the revolution, 

 taking an active part in the debates of the States Council 

 convened to define the relation of Sicily to Italian unity. 

 The affair of Spartivento to all intents and purposes 

 decided the fate of Lower Italy, and by the first week of 

 September Garibaldi was in Naples, and with the shutting 

 up of the last and feeblest of the Neapolitan Bourbons in 

 Gaeta, the emancipation of Italy was practically secured. 

 What remained to be done time would effect. 



Cannizzaro now returned to Genoa, passing through 

 Naples, where Piria had been called to reorganise the 

 system of public instruction, and resumed his work at 

 the University. In the preceding March he had been 

 offered, but had declined, the Professorship of Organic 

 Chemistry in the University of Pisa. He was now 

 invited to occupy the chair on the same subject in the 

 University of Naples, and this he also refused. He was 

 then claimed by his native town, and in October 1861, he 

 was named Professor of Inorganic and Organic Chemistry, 

 and Director of the Laboratory of the University of 

 Palermo. What he had to "direct" was contained in a 

 few cupboards, in the same class-room that he had sat in 

 as a student in 1842, and was barely sufficient for even 

 the most elementary illustrations. The whole of the fol- 

 lowing year was spent in organising his courses and in 

 superintending the arrangement and plenishing of the 

 rooms he ultimately acquired on the top-floor of the 

 University building. 



Cannizzaro remained at Palermo for about ten years ; 

 he took an active share in the management of the Univer- 

 sity, and for a time was its Rector. Its influence as a 

 school of chemistry may be judged of from the fact 

 that he had as co-workers Adolph Lieben, Wilhelm 

 Koerner, and lastly Paterno, who has succeeded him in 

 the chair. For the most part he occupied himself, as 

 regards his laboratory work, with the study of aromatic 

 compounds, and in extending and completing his 

 researches on the amines. 



If Cannizzaro was useful to the world as a chemist, he 

 was so far mindful of Priestley's example as to strive to 

 be equally useful to Palermo as a citizen, and much of his 

 time and ability was freely given in the service of her 

 municipal government, more particularly on subjects 

 relating to elementary and secondary education. 



In 1 87 1 Cannizzaro was called to occupy his present 

 position of Professor of Chemistry in the University of 

 Rome,and Directorof theChemical Institutein the Orto di 

 S. Lorenzo in Panisperma, and here, for the last five-and- 

 twenty years, he has annually delivered his two courses, 

 each of three lectures a week, on general and organic 

 chemistry, and has worked out, partly alone and partly in 

 conjunction with his pupils Amato, Blaserna, Carnelutti, 



