GRASSI, BATTISTA. – Born in Rovellasca on 27 May 1854, died in Rome on 4 May 1925. His research, begun in the field of parasitology, subsequently extended to various animal groups (chaetognaths, hymenopterans, dipterans, termites, arachnids, muraenoids, and teleosts) and opened fruitful fields of biological investigation.
His name is linked to the discovery of the intermediate parasite of the malaria plasmodium that infects humans and to the description of its developmental cycle. He tackled the most varied problems, thanks to his great passion for research and his exceptionally broad culture, and surrounded himself with a distinguished group of collaborators and students. He engaged in a lively controversy with R. Ross over priority for the discovery of the anopheles as the transmitter of malaria in humans, a discovery that impartial sources attribute to G. In his final years he devoted himself energetically to malaria prophylaxis in the Italian regions most severely affected by malaria.
He was a believer and lived without ambitions, humbly and in poverty; he held that life did not belong solely to the chemical-physical order, but depended on a higher order, as is evident from his important address: La vita come sembra ad un biologo, in Rendic. Acc. Lincei, 1906, II, pp. 219–39.