Felice Fontana

Felice Fontana

Felice Gaspare Ferdinando Fontana , also Felix Fontana (Roboretanus) (born April 15, 1730 in Pomarolo , Trento, † March 9 or 10, 1805 in Florence ), was an Italian naturalist and scientist .

resume

Gasparo Ferdinando Felice Fontana was born on April 15, 1730 in Pomarolo near Rovereto ( Welschtirol ). He came from a modest background and was the third of nine siblings. He received minor ordinations. He studied in Verona, Parma, Bologna, Padua, Rome and Florence. His dissertation deals with the irritability and sensitivity of the nerves in animals. Fontana was also a student of the historian Girolamo Tartarotti . In 1753 he became a member of the Accademia Roveretana degli Agiati . In 1766 Fontana was appointed professor of physics at the University of Pisa. Fontana maintained contacts with the Swiss doctor and botanist Albrecht von Haller (1708–1777) and conducted extensive scientific correspondence. In 1775 he was appointed director of the physical and natural history cabinet in Florence mentioned below by the scientifically interested Grand Duke Leopold of Tuscany (later Emperor Leopold II). After the opening of the museum, Fontana traveled through France and England from autumn 1775 to January 1780 to meet the most famous scientists of his time. The Medici scientific collections were brought into this museum. He arranged the collection with the instruments Galileo , the physicist and astronomer Evangelista Torricelli (1608–1647) and Galileo's collaborator Vincenzo Viviani (1622–1703) and had the above-mentioned anatomical wax figures made. The specimens were made by the sculptor Clemente Susini (1754–1814). In 1782 he was elected a corresponding member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences . In 1783 he became an elected member of the American Philosophical Society . When the French occupied Tuscany in 1799, the researcher was suspected of collaboration, arrested and set free again by Napoleon. As a thank you, he made wax figures that came to Montpellier in 1802 . Abbé Fontana was one of the most important and versatile anatomists and physiologists of the 18th century. He died on March 9 or 10, 1805, following a stroke he suffered on February 11, and is buried in Florence in the church of Santa Croce , which also houses Galileo's tomb.

Medical examinations

Fontana described a new canal in mind. The discovery was named after him and referred to as " Fontanasche spaces " (Spatia anguli iridocornealis). These are the spaces between the fibers of the trabecular reticulum . He also examined the reflections of light from the pupils. Fontana researched the red blood cells, described the poisonous teeth of snakes and made experiments with snake venom . Fontana also studied air and breathing and found that plant leaves release oxygen in sunlight. In 1781 the researcher described the microscopic findings of the nerve fibers. He experimented with the arrow poison curare and observed that the injection into the sciatic nerve had no toxic effect, but that this ceased after intravenous administration. He used electrical sparks as a stimulus in animal experiments and discovered that the sickness of sheep is caused by the bladder worm in the brain. Several of his works have been translated into French, English and German.

Wax models

When Emperor Josef II visited his brother the Grand Duke Leopold of Tuscany (Pietro Leopoldo di Lorena) in 1780, he saw the Reale Museo di Fisica e Storia Naturale , which he opened in Florence in 1775 and which is called “ La Specola “Had received. There the emperor admired the lifelike wax models of the human body made under the direction of Felice Fontana : life-size figures depicting muscles, ligaments and nerves. The monarch decided to have this collection produced again for the Roman Imperial Josephine Medical and Surgical Academy Vienna ( Josephinum ) which he had founded . The anatomist and friend Fontanas Paolo Mascagni (1755–1815) worked with it. The Vienna wax preparation collection is not a mere copy of the Florentine originals, as Mascagni brought his studies of the lymphatic system into the manufacture of the Vienna preparations. This collection remained almost in its original condition for two centuries with modified equipment and layout and, along with the library, is the pride of the house.

The most extensive collection of anatomical wax models in Florence is in the Collezione Ceroplastica of the “La Specola” museum. Another collection of Fontana's wax preparations - mainly obstetrical - can be seen in the Museo di Storia della Scienza . In this museum, several rooms with astronomical and physical devices are dedicated to Galileo Galilei .

siblings

Felice's brother Giuseppe Fontana (1729–1788) was a well-known doctor who worked in the natural sciences. The Istituto Tecnico Commerciale e per Geometri F. e G. Fontana in Rovereto was founded in 1855 and first named after the Austrian Empress Elisabeth Scuola reale Elisabettina , in 1933 after Queen Elena and in 1944 after the resignation of King Victor Emanuel III. changed to the names of the two brothers.

His brother Gregorio Fontana (1735-1803) was a well-known mathematician .

Works

• F. Fontana: Dissertation epistolaire de Mr. l'Abbé Felice Fontana de Rovereto. Bologna, 23 May 1757. In: Mémoires sur les parties sensibles et irritables du corps animal. Ouvrage qui sert de suite aux mémoires de Monsieur de Haller. Volume 4 Lausanne 1760, pp. 157-243.
• F. Fontana: Dei moti dell'iride. Lucca 1765.
• F. Fontana: Nuove osservazioni sopra i globetti rossi del sangue. Lucca 1766.
• F. Fontana: Traité sur le vénin de la vipere sur les poisons américains ... et la description d'un nouveau canal de l'œil. Florence 1781.
• F. Fontana: Treatise on the viper venom. CF Himburg, Berlin 1787. doi: 10.5962 / bhl.title.49536

literature

• F. Daxecker: The doctor and natural scientist Felix Fontana. In: Klin Mbl. Augenheilk. 223, 2006, pp. 999-1000.
• H. Feneis: Anatomical picture dictionary of the international nomenclature. Stuttgart / New York 1993, p. 358.
• A. Hirsch: Biographical lexicon for outstanding doctors of all times and peoples. 2nd Edition. Volume 2, Berlin / Vienna 1930, p. 562f.
• Heike Kleindienst: Fontana, Felice. In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 408 f.
• PK Knoefel: Felice Fontana. Life and work. Trento 1984.
• PK Knoefel: Felice Fontana vita e opere. Traduzione Paolo Antolini. Rovereto 1988.
• PK Knoefel: Felice Fontana 1730–1805. An Annotated Bibliography. Trento 1980. (All publications by Fontana are listed here)
• RG Mazzolini: Giuseppe Ongaro, Carteggio con Leopoldo Marc'Antonio Caldani 1759–1794. Trento 1980.
• RG Mazzolini (ed.): Ommaggio a Felice Fontana (1730-1805). Exhibition catalog. Rovereto 2005.
• M. Skopec (Ed.): Anatomy as Art. Anatomical wax models from the 18th century in the Josephinum in Vienna. Vienna 2002.
• Otto Rudel : Contributions to the history of medicine in Tyrol. Bozen 1925, pp. 287-294.
• G. Voss: Della vita e degli scritti di Giovanni Antonio Scopoli. Rovereto 1884.
• Constantin von Wurzbach : Fontana, Felix . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 4th part. Typogr.-literar.-artist publishing house. Establishment (L. C. Zamarski, C. Dittmarsch & Comp.), Vienna 1858, p. 281 f. ( Digitized version ).

Web links

• Trentini Famosi, ma non troppo, 2 : Felice Gaspare Ferdinando Fontana (www.televignole.it).

Commons : Felice Fontana  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 82.
2. ^ Member History: Felice Fontana. American Philosophical Society, accessed August 8, 2018 (incorrect year of birth). 
3. ↑ www.televignole.it .