[The problem of characterization of thalassemia intermedia in Italian medical research].

The paper reconstructs the investigations and the debates on thalassemia intermedia in Italy from 1925 to the end of the 1940s. It examines particularly the contribution of the studies of Ezio Silvestroni and Ida Bianco to the identification of clinical features and etiological bases of thalassemia intermedia and consequently the nature of its relationships with Cooley's disease.