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A time to remember. The autobiography of a chemist
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Wilkinson, Gene L. |
| Copyright Year | 1985 |
| Abstract | therefore indirectly influenced Darwin himself. Apart from any connexion with Darwin, this essay is important as the most recent study of this Italian geologist, a distinguished scientist in his own right. Pancaldi clearly outlines Brocchi's work and opinions, and his approach to such thinkers as Lamarck and Bonnet. Especially relevant is the basic incompatibility noted by Brocchi between the concept of extinction and that of the chain of being, a point of Brocchi's understanding on which Pancaldi throws much light and which is of vital importance for the rejection of the Platonic view of nature that helped to pave the way for Darwin's non-Platonic approach to evolution. Another central idea of Brocchi's was an analogy between individuals and species, a highly debated topic of the mid-nineteenth century, with contributions by Huxley and Forbes. The second essay deals with what seems to be Pancaldi's present hobby-horse: Luciano Bonaparte. In discussing this influential naturalist, Pancaldi manages to give a vivid picture of some of the debates that excited Italy-by then rather on the edge of European cultureconcerning the problem of species and classification from Cuvier to Darwin. Pancaldi also touches on a topic which should be carefully considered by all historians of nineteenth-century natural science, namely Naturphilosophie. The third essay deals more directly with the actual reception of Darwin's ideas in Italy, and focuses mainly on Giovanni Canestrini, showing both his agreements and his disagreements with Darwin, especially concerning the origin of man. The fourth essay is, in my opinion, the most important in the book, since it provides not only insight into the work of Federico Delpino but also helps towards an understanding of one of Darwin's least-studied aspects, the theory of pangenesis. Pancaldi has based his study of the relationship between the two naturalists on manuscript sources available in Cambridge, such as the correspondence between them, and Darwin's comments on the margin of Delpino's books, which he read with the help of his wife Emma. There is no doubt that Darwin took Delpino very seriously and was influenced by him. Pancaldi manages to finish on a high note, with a brilliant piece on Cesare Lombroso and the connexion between his thought and not only "Darwinism" but, more broadly, the positivistic approach to science and culture at the time. Pancaldi writes clearly, despite a few ugly and unnecessary neologisms. His is a good and useful book, although it is not the fully-fledged history of natural science in nineteenth-century Italy for which there is a great need. An English translation of this book would be most welcome. I Congressi degli scienziati contains contributions by a number of Italian historians of science, including Pancaldi himself. As he points out in the introduction, the book cannot compare with, say, Morrell's and Thackray's Gentlemen ofscience, or MacLeod's and Collins' The parliament ofscience, which give a complete view of the scientific influences at work in nineteenth-century Britain. Yet it is a welcome contribution, since it helps to throw light on an aspect hitherto little considered. Although the quality of the contributions is generally good, the length of the papers varies considerably. For example, Bottazzini's paper on mathematics is a thorough and technical essay, whilst other contributions are more lightweight. Personally, I enjoyed most Calcagno's paper on conferences concerning technology, especially agricultural technology. Nicoletta Morello outlines briefly but cogently the geological conferences; Giorgio Tabarroni gives a good account of the origin of the Societa Italiana per il Progresso delle Scienze; Minuz and Tagliavini inform us of who the congressmen were; and Pancaldi himself makes a contribution to the knowledge of Hugh Strickland, one of the most important but least known naturalists of the period immediately before the appearance of the Origin of species, and considers his correspondence with Luciano Bonaparte. Mario A. di Gregorio Darwin College, Cambridge |
| Starting Page | 105 |
| Ending Page | 106 |
| Page Count | 2 |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Volume Number | 29 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/pmc/9f/4a/medhist00076-0109.PMC1139491.pdf |
| Journal | Medical History |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
