ABSTRACT
Stanislao Cannizzaro was born in Palermo on July 13, 1826. The family came from Messina, and its members at different times held important offices in that city and elsewhere in Sicily. The career of Stanislao Cannizzaro was completed in an age and country full of romance. His experiences as a man of science were no less remarkable, for it may be said he began work almost before modern chemistry, of which he helped to lay the foundations, had been called into existence. In 1841, at the age of fifteen, Cannizzaro began the study of medicine at the University of Palermo, and especially the study of physiology under Professor Fodera. The University was at that time in a very imperfect condition, degrees being conferred only in the faculties of medicine, law, and theology. A little later Cannizzaro came very near to the modern idea of valency when discussing the capacity of saturation of different atoms.
