Andreozzi L
Universita di Bari, Italy.
Nuncius. 2000;15(1):79-109. doi: 10.1163/221058700x00465.
In the last few decades quite a few articles have been published concerning Volterra's contributions to biomathematics. These articles are usually focused on the works of Volterra published after 1926, while they overlook Volterra's intense activity as scientific organizer in the field of oceanographic studies in the years that span from 1910 - the year of his celebrated dissertation about the applications of mathematics to social and biological sciences - to 1925, when he met his prospective son-in-law Umberto D'Ancona. In this article I shall try to fill this gap by telling the history of Volterra's scientific collaboration with Italian biologists (such as Giovan Battista Grassi, Luigi de Marchi and Gustavo Brunelli) in the decades before his meeting with Umberto D'Ancona. This story is worth telling because it helps to explain the stronger emphasis Volterra placed in his first biomathematical papers on the importance of the applications of mathematics to biology for practical matters (such as the prevention of epidemics and the enhancement of the fishing industry) rather than on more theoretical issues, which he tackled only in the last years of his life.
在过去几十年里，已经发表了不少关于沃尔泰拉对生物数学贡献的文章。这些文章通常聚焦于沃尔泰拉1926年之后发表的作品，然而它们忽略了在1910年至1925年期间，沃尔泰拉作为海洋学研究领域科学组织者的积极活动。1910年是他发表关于数学在社会和生物科学应用的著名论文的年份，1925年他遇到了未来的女婿翁贝托·丹科纳。在本文中，我将试图填补这一空白，讲述沃尔泰拉在与翁贝托·丹科纳相识之前几十年里与意大利生物学家（如乔瓦尼·巴蒂斯塔·格拉西、路易吉·德·马尔基和古斯塔沃·布鲁内利）的科学合作历史。这个故事值得讲述，因为它有助于解释沃尔泰拉在其首批生物数学论文中更加强调数学在生物学实际应用（如预防流行病和促进渔业发展）方面的重要性，而不是在他生命的最后几年才涉及的更多理论问题。
