Fontana, Felice

FONTANA, FELICE. - Naturalist and physiologist, b. at Pomarolo (Trento) on 15 April 1730, d. at Florence on 19 March 1805. He was court physician under Leopold II and director of the Cabinet of Physics. His studies of muscular and nervous physiology and his histological studies on blood, on muscle fibers and on nerve fibers are important. He discovered the regeneration of severed nerve fibers.

His vast output also concerns the action of poisons, such as that of the viper, of curare and of cherry laurel. He studied wheat rust and the anguillula aceti. He was also a chemist and physicist and in this field can be considered the founder of gasometry. He was a staunch epigenist. He wrote: Dei moti dell'iride (Lucca 1756); De irritabilitatis legibus unice primum saucitis et de spirituum animalium in movendis musculis inefficacia (ibid. 1767); Ricerche filosofiche sopra la fisica animale (Florence 1773).

Enrico Urbani