IN EUROPE ITALY. 
39 
monographs, which, if of but small interest as regards Mam- 
mifers and Birds, is more important for the study of Fish, and 
especially of the lower animals. He has published, in various 
journals, articles on natural history, and particularly his Cor- 
rispondenza Zoologica. To him also we owe the knowledge 
of the most imperfect of the Vertehrata^ the fish BrancTiios- 
toma, described a short time afterwards by Yarrell, in Eng- 
land, under the name of Amphioxus, which is deprived of the 
organ of smell and taste ; not, however, of every trace of eyes 
and of brain, as erroneously supposed by some. In a recently 
established journal, the Antologia di Scienzi Naturali, we 
note, with pleasure, the writings of Signor Piria, and of the 
equally well known Signor Archangelo Scacchi. Signor Dalle 
Chiaje, the continuer of Poli, adhering to his anatomical re- 
searches, has published the second volume of his complete 
physiological work, and an interesting Memoir on the Protem 
anguinus. 
Entering the Homan State, we find at Velletri an ornitho- 
logical collection, the property of a lady, the Signora Contessa 
Borgia, who employs herself profitably with this science. Stop- 
ping too at Terracira, before arriving at this city, I may re- 
mark, that if the clear and cultivated intellect of an Elisabetta 
Fiorini were applied to Zoology rather than to Botany, in 
which branch she is famed among the highest masters of the 
science, I could with greater fitness exclaim with Ariosto : — 
“ Le donne son venute in eccellenza 
D’ogni beir arte, in che hanno posto cura.” 
In Home, we have collections of natural history, not indeed 
despicable, but far from being proportionate to a city, which 
centuries ago boasted of the famous Kircherian Museum, or 
to the immense opportunities afforded by the Catholic Propa- 
ganda. These collections are daily enriched by the care of 
Professors Metaxa, father and son, of Dr. Ponzi, and of the in- 
defatigable Signor Hiccioli, We owe to the Metaxas an appro- 
priate journal, where not only the medical sciences, but Zoology 
also has a place, by the publication of interesting memoirs 
which their zeal collects from all parts of Italy, with additional 
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