FONTANA, FELICE. – Naturalist and physiologist, born at Pomarolo (Trento) on 15 April 1730, died at Florence on 19 March 1805. He was court physicist under Leopoldo II and director of the Cabinet of Physics. Important are his studies of muscular and nervous physiology and his histological studies of the blood and of muscular and nervous fibres. He discovered the regeneration of severed nerve fibres.
His extensive output also concerned the action of poisons, such as those of the viper, curare, and cherry laurel. He studied wheat rust and the anguillula aceti. He was also a chemist and physicist and may in this field be considered the founder of gasometry. He was a fervent epigenist. He wrote: Dei moti dell'iride (Lucca 1756); De irritabilitatis legibus unice primum saucitis et de spirituum animalium in movendis musculis inefficacia (ivi 1767); Ricerche filosofiche sopra la fisica animale (Firenze 1773).