Angelo Celli

Angelo Celli (1857 , Cagli – 1914 , Rome) was an Italian physician and zoologist who studied malaria.

Celli graduated in medicine in 1878 at the Sapienza University of Rome, where he became hygiene professor. In 1880 with Ettore Marchiafava he studied a new protozoan discovered by Alphonse Laveran and which they called "Plasmodium". Subsequently it was shown to be to be the causative agent of malaria. He studied the biology and pathogenesis of malarial plasmodium for years after this working with Ettore Marchiafava,Amico Bignami , Giovanni Battista Grassi and Giuseppe Bastianelli.

Angelo Celli is famous in Rome (a marble sculpture of him is in the "Biblioteca dell'Istituto d'Igiene “G. Santarelli” in the Città Universitaria near Pincio) for his achievements as a hygienist, sociologist and deputy. After the formation of the Chinino_di_stato a state organisation controlling prices of drugs, preventing sales of illegal or counterfeit drugs and prosecuting speculators he ensured that this applied to malaria medicines.The drugs were soon supplied free to the poor.

At the time the Pontine Marshes , the wetlands in Tuscany for instance Maremma and Basilicata were malarial areas . Francisco Saverio Nitti asserted that Atella, as an example, remained deserted until the adoption of the laws passed by the Chinino di Stato.Since the populations were illiterate and had a fatalistic attitude to malaria “Le Scuole per i Contadini dell'Agro Romano e le Paludi Pontine” in English, "Schools for the Peasants of Agro Romana (vast areas of land around Rome)and Paludi Pontine (Pontine Marshes)" to educate and inform them. This scheme was subsequently adopted by the Argentine and Greece.

Celli's scientific and social achievements led to his receiving Laurea Honoris Causa from the University of Athensand the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health in London.He was awarded the Mary Kingsley medal by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.

Works

*"The history of malaria on the Roman Campagna from ancient times". London, John Bale, Sons Danielsson (1933).

References

*Conci, C. 1975 Repertorio delle biografie e bibliografie degli scrittori e cultori italiani di entomologia. "Mem. Soc. Ent. Ital." 48 1969(4) 817-1069.
*Conci, C. & Poggi, R. 1996 Iconography of Italian Entomologists, with essential biographical data. "Mem. Soc. Ent. Ital". 75 159-382.
*Howard, L. O. 1915 [Celli, A.] "Pop. Sci. Monthly" 87 72, Portrait.
*"Howard, L. O. 1930: History of applied Entomology (Somewhat Anecdotal)".Smiths. Miscell. Coll. 84 X+1-564.
*Roncalli, Amici R 2001 The history of Italian parasitology. "Vet. Parasitol." 98(1-3):3-30.

External links

* [http://faculty.ucr.edu/~legneref/bcimage/celli.jpgPortrait]