FANO, GIULIO. – Physician and physiologist, b. in Mantua on 29 March 1856, d. there on 27 September 1930. He was professor of general physiology at the University of Rome. He is credited with demonstrating the inhibitory action of encephalic centres on spinal reflexes and the oscillations of atrial tone in Emys europaea. He devoted himself to general questions, dealing with the origin of life and the evolution of species, and ultimately came to recognize the more philosophical than scientific character of evolution.
BIBL.: The articles on biological philosophy are collected in: P. Fano, Cervello e cuore, Bologna 1922. Luigi Sciccin