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Michele Lessona

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Michele Lessona
Born(1823-09-20)20 September 1823
Died20 July 1894(1894-07-20) (aged 70)
Turin, Italy
NationalityItalian
Alma materUniversity of Turin
Scientific career
FieldsNatural sciences, Zoology

Michele Lessona (20 September 1823, Venaria Reale, Piedmont – 20 July 1894, Turin) was an Italian zoologist.

Michele Lessona became a specialist in amphibians. His accomplishments include translating certain works of Darwin, for example, The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex.

Biography

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Lessona studied medicine in Turin, afterwards relocating to Egypt, where he worked in a hospital outside of Cairo as hospital director at Karnak.[1] From 1850 he studied natural sciences at Turin, and in the meantime found employment as a secondary school teacher. In 1854 he attained the chair of mineralogy and zoology at the University of Genoa.

In 1862, with Filippo de Filippi, he took part in a scientific and diplomatic mission to Persia, and after his return to Italy, he was named chair of zoology at the University of Bologna in 1863.[1] In 1867 he became chair of zoology and comparative anatomy at the University of Turin.[2] He was the first to translate Darwin's The Descent of Man into Italian, in 1871.[3] He was also a Senator of the Kingdom from 1877 to 1894.[1]

Eponyms

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Lessona has several herpetological species named after him, such as Pelophylax lessonae,[4] Diploglossus lessonae,[5] and Trapelus lessonae.[5]

Works

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Partial list

  • Volere è potere [it], 1869. Florence.
  • Carlo Darwin. 1883. Reissued by Kessinger, 2009, ISBN 978-1-104-06962-9.
  • Venti anni fa 1884. Reissued by Kessinger, 2009, ISBN 978-1-104-52050-2.
  • Le cacce in Persia. 1884. Rome. Reissued by Kessinger, 2010, ISBN 9781167477102.

References

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  1. ^ a b c Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2013-04-22). The Eponym Dictionary of Amphibians. Pelagic Publishing. ISBN 978-1-907807-42-8.
  2. ^ Library of the Department of Animal and Human Biology – Università degli Studi di Torino Archived 2013-02-18 at archive.today (biographical information)
  3. ^ Glick, Thomas F.; Shaffer, Elinor (2014-05-22). The Literary and Cultural Reception of Charles Darwin in Europe. A&C Black. ISBN 978-1-78093-712-0.
  4. ^ Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2013). The Eponym Dictionary of Amphibians. Exeter, England: Pelagic Publishing Ltd. xiii + 262 pp. ISBN 978-1-907807-41-1. ("Lessona", p. 124).
  5. ^ a b Beolens B, Watkins M, Grayson M (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. ("Lessona", p. 156).
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