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GUBERNATIS.

gradual minute variations. The honour of knighthood was bestowed upon him (Feb. 21, 1872) a few months after his elevation to the judicial bench (Nov., 1871) as a Justice of the Common Pleas. That office he held until Nov., 1875, when, through the operation of the Judicature Act, he became a Judge of the High Court of Jus- tice. Sir WiUiam has made several important discoveries in electaicity and optics, and he is the author of a remarkable lecture, printed in 1842, on " The Progress of Physi- cal Science since the opening of the London Institution." In this lec- ture he first advanced the doctrine of the mutual convertibility of the various natural forces, heat, elec- tricity, &c., and of their being all modes of motion. This doctrine is further developed in his famous essay *" On the Correlation of Phy- sical Forces," which appeared originally in 1846, reached a sixth edition, " with other contributions to science," in 1874, and has been tranlated into French and German. In 1847 he received the medal of the Eoyal Society for his Bakerian lecture on "Volteic Ignition, and on the Decompositicm of Water into its constituent Ceases by Heat." Sir William has contributed many papers to the Transactions of the Boyal Society, and the "Philoso- phical Magazine';" and he is a Fellow of the Eoyal Society, and a member of the Academies of Eome and Turin.

GUBERNATIS, Angelo De, an Italian author, born at Turin, April 7, 1840, was educated in the Uni- versity of Turin, where he received the degree of Doctor of Philology. He was appointed in 1860 professor of rhetoric in the gymnasium of Chieri, near Turin ; was sent in 1862, at the expense of the govern- ment, to Berlin, where he studied under Professors Bopp and Weber ; became extraordinary Professor of Sanscrit in the University of Flor- ence (Istituto di 8tudii Superiori) in

1863, and ordinary professor in 1869. Signor De Gubematis has attained celebrity as a dramatist, a lyric poet, a journalist, a critic, an orientalist, and a mythologist. He made his d^but with his tragedy entitled " Pier delle Vigne." The principal character was sustained by the celebrated actor Ernesto Bossi, and the piece proved a great success. Afterwards he publ&hed the following dramas in verse : "La Morte di Catone," "Romolo " (1874) ; "II m Nala," n m Dasarata," " Mdy&," " Eomolo Augustolo," and " Savitri : IdiUio Drammatico Tn- diano," 1878. He has founded five journals — V Italia LetteraHa (1862), La CiviltcL Italiana (1869), La Bivista Orientale (1867), La Bivista Europea (1869), and the Bollettvno Italiano degli studii orientali (1876). He is the Italian correspondent of the AthencBum and of the Contemporary Beview of London, of the Interna- tional Beview of New York, of the Deutsche Bundschau of Berlin, and of the Wiestnik Evropy of St. Peters- burg. Among his scientific works the following deserve special men- tion : " Piccola Enciclopedia In- diana" (Florence, 1867); "Fonti vediche dell'epopea " (Florence, 1867) ; " Memoria sui viagg^atori Italiani nelle Indie Orient^ " (Florence, 1867); "Storia com- parata degli usi nuziali Indo- Europei " (Milan, 1869) ; " Storia comparata degli usi funebri e natalizii" (Milan, 1877) ; " Zoologi- cal Mythology : or, the Legends of Animals" (2 vols., London, 1872), translated into German, Leipsic, 1873, and into French, Paris, 1874 ; "Letture sopra la Mitologia Ve- dica" (Florence, 1874); " Ricordi biografici "(Florence, 1873); " StoriA del viaggiatori Italiani nelle Indie " (Leghorn, 1875) ; " Mat^riaux pour servir k THistoire des £tudes Orientales en Italic" (Paris and Florence, 1876) ; and "Mythologie des Plantes," 2 vols. (Paris, 1878). He is general secretary of 'the Italian OrientaJrAcademy. In May,

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