I giornali delle sperienze e osservazioni relativi alla fisiologia della generazione e alla embriologia sperimentale

Reviewed by Mario A. Di Gregorio, M.A., Ph.D., F.L.S., Darwin College, Cambridge. The more the scope of research in the history of science widens, and the more intriguing the problems it touches appear to us, the more we feel the necessity to refer to the original sources represented by unpublished material. Thus archives are now invaluable points of reference in our research. It often happens that the historian of science finds in manuscripts the solution to problems that appear puzzling if only published material is available, and sometimes one must correct the conclusions reasonably reached through research in a scientist's printed papers. For example, the forthcoming edition of Darwin's letters will certainly induce historians to reconsider some of the conclusions reached by previous generations who could not use such evidence. Some archives are readily approachable, especially in this country, but such is not the case for most of the Italian archives which, one may be sure, contain a great deal of undiscovered treasure. Needless to say, it is no fault of the Italian archivists, who are professionally as competent as their British colleagues, but it is the state in which the necessary facilities for university research have been kept for innumerable years by inept and corrupt governments that causes frustration and discomfort to those who are more interested in academic research than political games. A few benevolent individuals keep research up to standards which are often as high as in better-organized countries. Dr. Castellani is one of these individuals: historians of biological science should be deeply grateful to him for his transcription of some important manuscripts of Spallanzani. Dr. Castellani is a general practitioner and dedicates most of his free time to the history of medicine and biology. He has succeeded in his enterprise only thanks to the help and goodwill of the staff of the Biblioteca Municipale of Reggio Emilia, where the manuscripts that could be traced were preserved. Spallanzani was one of those people T. H. Huxley is another famous example who indulged in the habit of keeping almost all that passed through their hands, and Dr. Castellani has transcribed only part of the material which, he tells us, would need a new and thorough cataloguing. Quite appropriately, Dr. Castellani has chosen those journals devoted to the experiments on batrachians, whilst the parts concerning salamanders have been omitted, except those on their artificial fertilization. Of Spallanzani's notes, most of which concerned the Dissertazioni of 1780, those relative to his actual research have been transcribed, omitting those on matters not primarily scientific, such as problems concerning the printing of the work. The transcription appears to me reliable and accurate unusual and wrong punctuation and spellings have been maintained, while grammatical and syntactical mistakes have simply been noted, leaving the original as it is. Explicative notes to the text have been added by Dr. Castellani and by Professor V. Leone, a distinguished embryologist from Milan University. Dr. Castellani's notes are of a historical nature,