Rivalry and Revenge Costantinopoli 1786: La Congiura E La Beffa (Constantinople 1786: the Conspiracy and the Hoax) by Paolo Mazzarello Bollati Boringhieri: 2004
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
books and arts in writing. With its clear and accessible style, the book could be shared with young readers, who might be less susceptible than earlier generations to narratives of romantic INDEX, FIRENZE self-sacrifice, and more intrigued by the psychological portrait of a complicated and accomplished woman scientist. ■ Susan Lindee is in the Department of History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-6304, USA. Rivalry and revenge Costantinopoli 1786: la congiura e la beffa (Constantinople 1786: The Conspiracy and the Hoax) by Paolo Mazzarello Bollati Boringhieri: 2004. 327 pp. €24. In Italian. http://www.bollatiboringhieri.it/ Nicola Nosengo The second half of the eighteenth century was a time of spectacular advances in the life sciences. Fundamental problems such as the generation of life were addressed for the first time using modern experimental tools. But these issues were the source of great controversy, and also great rivalries among Lazzaro Spallanzani poured scorn on rivals whose experiments failed to meet his own high standards. biologists — or philosophers, as they still preferred to call themselves. was a genuine scientific mission.Spallanzani known. Using a pen name, he wrote a At a time when many scientists were still left Pavia equipped with scientific instru- pamphlet, full of scorn and cruel irony, convinced that life can be generated sponta- ments, such as barometers, thermometers, condemning Scopoli’s ability as a scientist. neously from decomposition, the Italian lenses and a microscope. He spent most of Scopoli,he wrote,wanted to study nature Lazzaro Spallanzani was the first to demon- his time taking measurements and collecting inside “dead museums”, only hoping to be stratethe necessity of sperm for reproduction. samples, studying everything from living lucky enough to discover and classify new He was the first to perform artificial insemi- species to climate and geology. animals and put them on the shelves. But nation — a challenging experiment at the In Spallanzani’s absence, his rivals con- nature, in Spallanzani’s view, had to be stud- time,especially as he was a Catholic priest. spired against him. Under the instructions of ied in action, observing animals’ behaviour, Spallanzani was a strong opponent of Scopoli,Serafino Volta,Spallanzani’s assistant comparing them in terms of the structures Carolus Linnaeus, who in 1735 had pub- in the museum, visited his family home in and functions of their organs. Had Scopoli lished the first complete classification of liv- Emilia, asking to see his private museum. He paid more attention to the internal structure ing species, mostly based on external traits. then accused Spallanzani of stealing objects of the worm, had he stopped to wonder how Spallanzani, however, was convinced that from the Pavia museum and putting them it could actually live,he would probably have naturalists should study every aspect of liv- in his own collection. The news spread realized his mistake and avoided his humilia- ing forms, including their behaviour and throughout Europe and reached Spallan- tion,argued Spallanzani in his pamphlet. environment, rather than simply force them zani,by now in Vienna on his way home. Mazzarello tells the whole story with into groups according to what they look like. On his arrival in Pavia, Spallanzani was detailed descriptions of landscapes and the Such a man could easily make enemies.In able to prove his innocence and restore his people Spallanzani met during his journey, Pavia, where he taught natural history at the reputation. His rivals were severely repri- based on his diaries.He describes Spallanzani’s university and was responsible for the mus- manded by the authorities in Milan. “lust for knowledge”,his being as “fascinated eum, Spallanzani was surrounded by envy, But this was not enough for Spallanzani, and seduced by Nature as his contemporary particularly from Giovanni Antonio Scopoli, who took a supplementary revenge when Giacomo Casanova was by women”. a chemist and botanist,and devoted follower Scopoli, in 1785, announced his discovery of But what is really compelling is that of Linnaeus. The rivalry between Spallan- a new species of worm: a human parasite through this plot we can observe the devel- zani and Scopoli resulted in a conspiracy unlike any other previously known.The par- opment of experimental methods in biology. worthy of a Shakespearean tragedy. The tale asite ostensibly came from a woman from It is mostly over methods that Spallanzani is told in this book by Paolo Mazzarello, a northern Italy, and its scientific description and his rivals clashed. The worst that Spal- professor of the history of medicine at the brought Scopoli fame. He even dedicated it lanzani could throw at his rival when he took very same university in Pavia. to the botanist Joseph Banks, then president his revenge was to call him a poor experi- In 1785, Spallanzani set sail for Constan- of the Royal Society in London. But in 1787 menter. Personal authority was no longer tinople, taking advantage of Venice’s new the worm turned out to be a hoax,constructed enough in science unless it was supported by diplomatic links with the Ottoman capital. by a farmer for a joke from the oesophagus reliable and replicable methods. ■ He had taken a year off from teaching in and windpipe of a chicken. Spallanzani Nicola Nosengo is on the editorial staff of the Pavia, but this was no pleasure cruise — it ensured that Scopoli’s humiliation was widely Italian science magazine Galileo,based in Rome. 142 NATURE | VOL 434 | 10 MARCH 2005 | www.nature.com/nature © 2005 Nature Publishing Group.