Carlo MATTEUCCI (1811-1868) Italian physicist... Lot 380

Carlo MATTEUCCI (1811-1868) Italian physicist and politician. 6 L.A.S. and 2 L.S., Pisa, Turin, Geneva, 1852-1865, to various correspondents (one to Claude Bernard); 17 pages in-8 and in-4 (tears to 2 letters); in French. Beautiful correspondence from a pioneer of electrophysiology. Matteucci talks about his electrophysiology experiments on frogs, the presentation of one of his works to the Académie des Sciences, his application for a position as a correspondent of the Institut (with a list of his work), the publication of an article in response to Le Verrier's attacks, the dispatch of bismuth rods from his galvanometer (with a drawing), the insertion of a note following the erroneous assertions of Abbé Moigno, the communication of a manuscript intended for the Annales, etc. Here are two extracts. Pisa, December 24, 1858, to Claude Bernard: "I leave it to the physicists to judge my work in physics proper. But no one is in a better position than you to judge my work in electrophysiology. It's a part of physics that didn't exist before, and which now results from experiments as certain and clear-cut as those on gravity. Pure physicists don't know what it's like to do a good animal physics experiment. Perhaps only I know what it took to prove that frog current and muscle current are phenomena of the living organism explained by the muscular electromotor. Nobili had done nothing of the sort; on the contrary, he had distorted the nature of the phenomenon. We now know the truth"... Turin June 30 [1865], to an "illustrious colleague": "I now see with great regret that the newspapers Les Mondes and Cosmos have published an extract from my letters, which I addressed to them with the aim of spreading my reply and defending myself as much as possible from M. Le Verrier's relentless and incredible attack. I beg you, illustrious fellow-member, to help me spread this truth among our fellow-members, and not to be accused of resorting to these means of publication, other than in a case where I felt I had to do so in my own defense. I am very angry about this, and I want my colleagues to know it. Besides, Mr. Le Verrier can accuse me, I don't know what, that I won't answer any more"...