The opening session of this Congress was a solemn ceremony of homage to Paterno at which Sir Robert Robinson addressed the assembly as follows: ‘ The Presidents, Mr Mayor, Your Excellencies and Ministers, Ladies and Gentlemen: ‘ The opportunity to pay homage to the memory of so distinguished a chemist, so notable an administrator and teacher, above all so great a citizen, as Emanuele Paterno, is a very unusual privilege and I embrace it as the representative of a scientific community which gratefully acknowledges its debt to Italian scholarship and research. ‘ Piria can with justice be regarded as the founder of one of the schools of Italian chemistry. His mantle fell on a disciple, greater than the master, who in 1858 proved himself one of the great lawgivers of organic chemistry. I need not expatiate on the achievements of Cannizzaro, because an understanding of the part he played in the development of our science is essential to every serious student of its history. ‘ Paterno, it is high praise to say, was a most worthy successor of Cannizzaro and not only maintained a proud tradition but notably extended its scope. ‘ Both men were born in Palermo, and both occupied chairs in the university of their native city and later in Rome. They carried out experimental work of the highest originality over the whole range of chemistry and in addition took a large and important part in public affairs, especially those relating to the improvement of the teaching and application of science and scientific method, and to the diffusion of scientific information.
One Hundred Years of the Italian Chemical Society-One Hundred Years of Chemistry