BIZIO, BARTOLOMEO. — Chemist, born in Vicenza on 30 Oct. 1791, died in Venice in 1862; considered among the greatest scientists of his time by Fr. Secchi in the preface to his book on *L'unità delle forze fisiche* and remembered abroad as a precursor of the most modern scientific views.
Memorable are his studies *Sulla porpora degli antichi*; the discovery of copper in various molluscs; the explanation of the phenomenon of “polenta porporina,” which made him a precursor of microbiology; the numerous series of researches in biological chemistry and studies in physical chemistry collected in his work *Dinamica chimica*, where he examines the surface tension of liquids and anticipates his contemporaries in the study of chemical affinities, catalysis, pseudo-solutions, and the repulsive tremor in the superficial layers of bodies.
This “noble vieillard,” as one of his apologists defined him at the Institut de France in 1860, was also a fine writer, a student of Italian literature, praised by Fr. Cesari; a member of the “Società Ital. delle Scienze” (known as the dei Quaranta) and of the Istituto Italiano delle Scienze; he lived for science and for his family. “Faithful to the most holy religion of his ancestors, he punctually followed its practices and precepts, and thus with the true resignation of a Christian he endured those trials of body and spirit with which Providence saw fit to visit him throughout his life on earth,” as testified by Dr. Pazienti in the eulogy read at the meeting of 28 Dec. 1862 at the Istituto Veneto delle Scienze e Lettere. In the bibliography of his writings, 109 memoirs and communications to various Italian and foreign scientific journals and numerous academies are recorded.