PROFESSOR PIETRO BLASERNA, of the Royal University of Rome, is the author of numerous notable essays on scientific subjects. Among them are “The Principles of the Conservation of Energy” (1864); “Inductive Currents”; and “The Dynamic Theory of Heat” (1872). This latter essay was followed by “The Theory of Sound in Its Relation to Music” (1875), which was at once translated into French, English, and other languages.

  Blaserna was educated at the University of Vienna and in Paris, where he was attached to the Laboratory of Regnault. In 1863 he became a professor in the University of Palermo, and in 1878 in that of Rome, where he was put in charge of the Italian Laboratory of the Physical Sciences.