Rev. Camillo Melzi D' Eril

Abstract

FATHER CAMILLO MELZI D' ERIL, who died on Mar. 10 last, was born on Jan. 6, 1851, and thus at the time of his death was one of our oldest seismologists. He was educated at the Carlo Alberto College, Moncalieri, arid later was admitted to the Barnabite Order. In 1873 he joined the teaching staff of the Collegio alla Querce at Florence. Here he was a colleague of Father T. Bertelli, the founder of microseismology. For many years he was director of the geodynamic observatory belonging to the college. Following in Bertelli's footsteps, Melzi made a special study of microseismic motions, concluding that their frequency increased with a low barometric pressure, but that it was independent of the velocity of the wind. On the death of Bertelli, he contributed a valuable account of his life and work to the Bollettino of the Italian Seismological Society (vol. 10, pp. 179-196; 1904).