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Making biomedicine in twentieth-century Italy: Domenico Marotta (1886–1974) and the Italian Higher Institute of Health

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 August 2011

DANIELE COZZOLI  and
MAURO CAPOCCI
DANIELE COZZOLI
Affiliation:
Pompeu Fabra University, Department of Humanities, 25/27 carrer Ramón Trias Fargas, 08005, Barcelona, Spain. Email: [email protected].
MAURO CAPOCCI
Affiliation:
Sezione di Storia della Medicina Sapienza – Università di Roma, Viale dell'Università 34/A 00185 Rome, Italy. Email: [email protected].
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Abstract

This paper focuses on the role played by Domenico Marotta, director of the ISS (Higher Institute of Health) for over twenty-five years, in the development of twentieth-century Italian biomedicine. We will show that Marotta aimed to create an integrated centre for research and production able to interact with private industry. To accomplish this, Marotta shifted the original mission of the ISS, from public health to scientific research. Yet Mussolini's policy turned most of the ISS resources towards controls and military tasks, opposing Marotta's aspiration. By contrast, in the post-war years Marotta was able to turn the ISS into the most important Italian biomedical research institution, where research and production fruitfully cohabited. Nobel laureates, such as Ernst Chain, and future Nobel laureates, such as Daniel Bovet, were hired. The ISS built up an integrated research and production centre for penicillin and antibiotics. In the 1960s, Marotta's vision was in accord with the new centre-left government. However, he pursued his goals by ruling the ISS autocratically and beyond any legal control. This eventually led to his downfall and prosecution. This also marked the decline of the ISS, intertwined with the weakness of the centre-left government, who failed to achieve structural reforms and couple the modernization of the country with the democratization of its scientific institutions.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal for the History of Science , Volume 44 , Issue 4 , December 2011 , pp. 549 - 574
Copyright
Copyright © British Society for the History of Science 2011

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46 The Fascist puppet state was formed in northern Italy at the end of 1943.

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63 Letter from Marotta to the prime minister, 20 October 1948, ACS/ISTISAN/FP, box 23.

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67 Bevan to Chain, 4 June 1954, CMA/PP/EBC, K 14.

68 Marotta to UNRRA, 29 January 1947, ACS/ISTISAN/FP, box 23.

69 The AUSA was a US agency that managed aid from the American government. The UNRRA had, in fact, ceased activities by June 1947.

70 AUSA to the director of the ISS, 8 June 1947, ACS/ISTISAN/FP, box 24. This is easily explained by the fact that AUSA would in turn cease activities by December 1947.

71 The director of the ISS to the finance minister, 28 June 1947, ACS/ISTISAN/FP, box 24.

72 DLCPS 24 gennaio 1947 no. 26, in Verbali del consiglio dei ministri, vol. VII 2, Presidenza del Consiglio dei ministri Dip. per l'informazione e l'editoria, Rome, 1997, p. 965.

73 The director of the ISS to the Finance Ministry, 28 June 1947, in ACS/ISTISAN/FP, box 24.

74 Marotta to De Gasperi, 20 October 1948, in ISTISAN/FP, box 23.

75 ‘Registrazione effettuata in occasione della cerimonia della posa della prima pietra dell'Istituto Italiano per la fabbrica della penicillina – trasmessa il 12/2/1948 alle ore 20.10’, ACS/ISTISAN/FP, box 23.

76 It is worth noting that the ISS was at the same time a manufacturer of penicillin and the controller of production for other factories. On 2 May 1947 Cisitalia asked Bergami whether there was any conflict with Cisitalia's intention to set up a penicillin factory and the planned ISS factory. Marotta answered (on 20 May) that there was no conflict, unless the government decided to establish a state monopoly on penicillin production. Moreover, he pointed out that the state had to control production of private factories. Both the letters are in ACS/ISTISAN/FP, box 24.

77 Report of the meeting in the office of the head of the prime minister's cabinet, ACS/ISTISAN/FP, box 23.

78 In 1950, Dayton became the new head of the Economic Cooperation Administration in Italy.

79 M.L. Dayton to the high commissioner for hygiene and public health, 29 June 1940, ISTISAN/FP, box 23.

80 Dayton, op. cit. (79).

81 The shortage mostly affected streptomycin. See the ACIS response to an official inquiry advanced by Giuseppe Veronesi, MP, in Atti Parlamentari, Discussioni, Seduta Antimeridiana 27 April 1951, p. 27771. The attorney officially asked the ACIS for an explanation, ACS/PCM 1951–54 1.6.5 49427.

82 Report of the meeting in the office of the head of the prime minister's cabinet, ACS/ISTISAN/FP, box 23.

83 De Gasperi was promptly assured by the US ambassador, Robert Dunn, that the USA would support the penicillin factory. Head of the prime minister's cabinet to Marotta, ACS/ISTISAN/FP, box 23.

84 Marotta to the prime minister, 20 October 1948, ACS/ISTISAN/FP, box 23.

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87 ‘Promemoria per S. E. L'Alto commissario del 9.12.1957 del direttore dell'ISS, Marotta’, ACS/ISTISAN/direzione, box 79.

88 Bovet, op. cit. (23), p. 16.

89 See ISS, Riassunto di attività varie dell'anno 1960, Rome, 1961, on p. 63Google Scholar.

90 See Expert Committee on Antibiotics, 1950, Report on the First Session, Geneva, 11–15 April, WHO Technical Report Series 26, pp. 1–12. At the time, the ISS was in the international elite in the field of antibiotics. In 1953, when the international standard for bacitracin had to be established by the WHO, the International Centre for Microbiological Chemistry of the ISS was one of six laboratories in the world collaborating in the assay. The other laboratories were in Canada, Denmark, the UK and the USA. See Humphrey, J.H.et al., ‘The international standard for bacitracin’, Bulletin of the World Health Organization (1953) 9, pp. 861–869Google ScholarPubMed. For other international antibiotic standards ISS was also involved, although as part of a larger group.

91 ‘Considerazioni che Carilli desidera esporre nella riunione di laboratorio del 13 novembre prossimo, in seguito a quella in cui Gualandi ha esposto una sua relazione sull'impianto pilota’, State Central Archive, Directorship of the ISS (subsequently ACS/ISTISAN/direzione), box 86.

92 Telegram, Cevdet Erikel of the import–export commission to Marotta, 28 September 1957, in ACS/ISTISAN/FP, box 26.

93 Milivoj Hladnik of the Boris Kidrič Institute of Chemistry, Ljubljana, to Marotta, 22 November 1963; letter from Prof. Jezic of the Veterinary Faculty of the University of Sarajevo, 1 April 1961, ACS/ISTISAN/FP, box 26.

94 See the letter from Antibiotici Lepetit to Marotta, 26 March 1955, reproduced in ISS, Riassunto di attività varie per l'anno 1955, Rome, 1956. Farmitalia also cooperated with Chain's team. See ‘Considerazioni che Carilli desidera esporre nella riunione di laboratorio del 13 novembre prossimo, in seguito a quella in cui Gualandi ha esposto una sua relazione sull'impianto pilota’, ACS/ISTISAN/direzione, box 86. Chain also suggested to Marotta that they could have cooperated with Merck laboratories. See Chain to Marotta, 11 August 1948, in CMA/PP/EBC, C8.

95 State Central Archive, Administration and Personnel (subsequently ACS/ISTISAN/Amm. e personale), box 127.

96 The data are contained in ‘ISS, Riassunti di attività varie dell'anno 1955, Rome, 1956’, pp. 526–527; ‘ISS, Riassunti di attività varie dell'anno 1956, Rome, 1957’, pp. 451–452; ‘ISS, Riassunti di attività varie dell'anno 1957, Rome, 1958’, pp. 454–455; ‘ISS, Riassunti di attività varie dell'anno 1958, Rome, 1959’, pp. 532–534; ‘ISS, Riassunti di attività varie dell'anno 1959, Rome, 1960’, pp. 563–564; ‘ISS, Riassunti di attività varie dell'anno 1960, Rome, 1961’ pp. 547–548.

97 ‘Dati di costo relativi alla penicillina ottenuta nell'impianto pilota per chimica microbiologica’, ACS/ISTISAN/direzione, box 79.

98 Bud, op. cit. (50), p. 127.

99 ‘Consiglio di Stato. Parere di Adunanza generale: ruoli organici dell'Istituto Superiore di Sanità e dell'Alto Commissariato per l'Igiene e la Sanità Pubblica’, 3 May 1948, PCM 55/58 39792 1.1.2, sub-file 8.

100 In April 1948 the legislative office of the Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri complained that such a decision would ‘put the ISS in the hands either of foreign people or of Italian citizens somehow related to Foreign powers [sic]’. ‘Osservazioni al progetto di legge per l'ampliamento dei ruoli dell'Istituto Superiore di Sanità’, in PCM 55/58 39792 1.1.2, sub-file 8. Decreto Legge no. 811 of 7 May 1948 allowed the hiring of personnel with foreign diplomas.

101 Penso, op. cit. (16), pp. 68–69.

102 Penso, op. cit. (16), pp. 70–71.

103 ‘L'Istituto superiore di sanità esplica funzioni di ricerca scientifica, nonché di produzione di sieri e vaccini, sostanze antibiotiche, ed altre ritenute utili al raggiungimento dei suoi fini. Esegue controlli di Stato, controlli analitici ed assolve a tutti gli altri compiti che le leggi gli affidano.’ In Penso, op. cit. (16), p. 64.

104 See Marotta, Domenico, ‘Aspetti dell'Organizzazione Sanitaria Italiana’, in Rendiconti dell'ISS (1943) 6, pp. 315–338Google Scholar, 329.

105 On the history of the therapeutic chemistry laboratory of the ISS see Giorgio Bignani and Amilcare Carpi de Resmini, ‘Breve storia dei laboratori di chimica terapeutica dell'Istituto Superiore di Sanità’, in Giorgio Bignani and Amilcare Carpi de Resmini (eds.), I Laboratori di chimica terapeutica, Rome: Istituto Superiore di Sanità, 2005, pp. 11–43.

106 Bignani and de Resmini, op. cit. (105), p. 61.

107 About Farmitalia, see the several documents held in CMA/PP/EBC, boxes 35–36. About the cooperation with Astra, the relevant documents are held in CMA/PP/EBC, boxes 28–29. Regarding Beecham, the relevant papers are mostly in CMA/PP/EBC, boxes 29–31.

108 Ballio, Alessandroet al., ‘Penicillin derivatives of p-aminobenzylpenicillin’, Nature (1959) 183, pp. 180–181CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed. See also Clark, op. cit. (58), pp. 132–139; and Bud, op. cit. (50), pp. 124–125.

109 ‘Il me semble que le véritable progrès que nous avons accompli ici sur Paris, c'est une grande méthode et une grande suite dans le travail : nous n'abandonnons rien en route, les réunions nous permettent de faire le point sur chaque question, une jolie salle de lecture fait qu'on lit les revues régulièrement et volontiers. De plus le directeur a une poigne de fer sous des airs très doux, et l'on arrive à l'heure et l'on travaille, et il n'y a aucun gauchis, malgré une richesse de moyens à laquelle nous n’étions guère habitués’. Filomena Nitti Bovet to Fourneau, 2 July 1948, p. 3, Pasteur Institute Archive, Fourneau papers, box 1. On Fourneau's laboratory see Chevassus-au-Louis, Nicolas, Savants sous l'occupation, Paris: Seuil, 2004, pp. 211–225Google Scholar.

110 See Rendiconti ISS – Indice Generale per Autori (1938–1957), Rome, 1962.

111 Archive of the Karolinska Institutet, nomination by Domenico Marotta 1952–53 no. 80, 2.

112 Tamburrano, Giuseppe, Storia e cronaca del Centro-sinistra, Milano: Feltrinelli, 1971Google Scholar; Voulgaris, Yoannis, L'Italia del Centro-Sinistra, Rome: Carocci, 1998Google Scholar.

113 Bill proposal no. 1335 (Senate, III legislature), ‘Proroga della permanenza in carica del Direttore dell'Istituto superiore di Sanità, professore Domenico Marotta’, 1960. The proposers were Ettore Tibaldi (vice-president of the Senate), Giuseppe Alberti, Luigi Benedetti, Angelo G. Mott, Antonio Bonadies and Giuseppe Paratore.

114 On Marotta's trial see Paoloni, Giovanni, ‘Il caso Marotta’, in Rendiconti dell'Accademia Nazionale delle Scienze detta dei XL. Memorie di scienze fisiche e naturali, V series (1999) XXIII, part II, vol. I, pp. 215–22Google Scholar; and Paoloni, Giovanni, ‘Il caso Marotta: La scienza in tribunale’, Le Scienze (2004) 431, pp. 88–93Google Scholar.

115 The newspaper published a report on 31 July 1963: ‘Lo scandalo all'Istituto di Sanità’, L'Unità (40) 209, p. 3.

116 He was hired by the ISS before the Second World War, and he was one of the two scientists who went to Toronto to learn how to operate the UNRRA penicillin factory, in 1946.

117 Penso, op. cit. (16), p. 57.

118 See Mario Ageno, ‘Riflessioni e proposte per una riforma dell'Istituto Superiore di Sanità’, unpublished typescript held at the ISS Library, ISS 63/45, Rome, 1963, p. 6.

119 Sentenza della Corte d'Appello di Roma, sez. II penale, no. 2640/68, p. 50, AXL/MAR, box 2.

120 Marotta was not actually jailed, as an amnesty marking the fortieth anniversary of the Republic in 1966 had remitted all crimes punished by up to three years in jail. Clark, op. cit. (58), p. 140.

121 Sentenza della Corte d'Appello di Roma, sez. II penale, no. 2640/68, pp. 132–133, AXL/MAR, box 2.

122 Stefano Rodotà, ‘Le libertà e i diritti’, in Raffaele Romanelli, Storia dello Stato Italiano, Rome, 1995, 331. In the same collection of essays, see also Guido Melis, ‘L'amministrazione’, on pp. 225–241.

123 Ginsborg, op. cit. (47), pp. 145–146.

124 A fierce debate took place in the parliament in October 1963. See Camera dei Deputati, Atti Parlamentari, IV legislatura, discussioni, seduta antimeridiana del 22 ottobre 1963, pp. 348–344 and 3489–3506; and ibid., Atti Parlamentari, IV legislatura, discussioni, seduta antimeridiana del 24 ottobre 1963, pp. 3725–3742. See also Clark, op. cit. (58), p. 140.

125 See Chain to Marini-Bettolo, 7 January 1965, in CMA/PP/EBC C 16.

126 See Bovet's diary in PIA, BOV, box 2.

127 ‘Relazione al Consiglio Superiore di Sanità per il triennio 1965–67’, ACS/ISTISAN/direzione, box 77.

128 ‘Considerazioni che Carilli desidera esporre nella riunione di laboratorio del 13 novembre prossimo, in seguito a quella in cui Gualandi ha esposto una sua relazione sull'impianto pilota’, ACS/ISTISAN/direzione, box 86.

129 ‘Relazione inerente i costi dei flaconi di penicillina da 500.000 e 1.000.000 di unità in diverse ipotesi di lavoro’, ACS/ISTISAN/direzione, box 86.

130 ‘L'impianto pilota del C.I.C.M.’, ACS/ISTISAN/direzione, box 86.

131 ‘Proposte attività possibili e realistiche nel futuro prossimo e lontano’, ACS/ISTISAN/direzione, box 86. Gualandi was harshly criticized by Carilli. See ‘Considerazioni che Carilli desidera esporre nella riunione di laboratorio del 13 novembre prossimo, in seguito a quella in cui Gualandi ha esposto una sua relazione sull'impianto pilota’, ACS/ISTISAN/direzione, box 86.

132 ‘Relazione e schema di disegno di legge presentati dalla commissione di studio per le modifiche da apportare ai compiti, all'ordinamento e alle strutture dell'Istituto Superiore di Sanità’, ACS/ISTISAN/direzione, box 77.

133 ‘Relazione al Consiglio Superiore di Sanità per il triennio 1965–67’, ACS/ISTISAN/direzione, box 77.

134 ‘Dati di costo relativi alla penicillina ottenuta nell'impianto pilota per chimica microbiologica’, ACS/ISTISAN/direzione, box 79.

135 ‘Relazione inerente i costi dei flaconi di penicillina da 500.000 e 1.000.000 di unità in diverse ipotesi di lavoro’, ACS/ISTISAN/direzione, box 86.

136 Report by Giuseppe Penso to Giovanni Battista Marini-Bettolo of 13 July 1964, ACS/ISTISAN/direzione, box 86.

137 Letter from Penso and Intonti to Marotta, ACS/ISTISAN/direzione, box 86.

138 See Clark, op. cit. (58), pp. 159–160.

139 Between 1958 and 1964, the average annual increase of the GDP was 6.3 per cent. Ginsborg, op. cit. (47), p. 214; Eichengreen, Barry, The European Economy since 1945: Coordinated Capitalism and Beyond, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006Google Scholar.

140 Castronovo, Valerio, L'industria italiana dall'Ottocento a oggi, Milan: Mondadori, 1980, p. 276Google Scholar.

141 Castronovo, op. cit. (140), p. 271.

142 G. Conti, ‘Note sulla posizione relativa dell'Italia dal punto di vista della specializzazione internazionale della produzione’, in Augusto Graziani (ed.), Crisi e ristrutturazione dell'economia italiana, Turin: Einaudi, 1975, pp. 381–404; Giovanni Berlinguer, Politica della scienza. Il movimento operaio e la rivoluzione scientifico-tecnologica pro e contro l'uomo, Rome: Editori Riuniti, 1970; De Cecco, Marcello, ‘Lo sviluppo dell'economia italiana e la sua collocazione internazionale’, in Rivista Internazionale di Scienze Economiche e Commerciali (1971) 17(10), pp. 973–993Google Scholar.

143 Petri, op. cit. (85), p. 343. There are a few notable exceptions, including the plastic materials developed by Giulio Natta's group at Montecatini, and the research groups at Lepetit and Farmitalia that discovered rifamycin and daunomycin. See Fauri, Francesca, ‘The “economic miracle” and Italy's chemical industry, 1950–1965: a missed opportunity’, Enterprise & Society (2000) 1, pp. 279–314, 298–302CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Sironi, Vittorio A., Le officine della salute, Rome and Bari: Laterza, 1992, pp. 178–179Google Scholar.

144 Una politica per la ricerca scientifica, Atti del convegno di studio promosso dall'ufficio centrale attività culturali della DC, Rome, 1962.

145 Una politica, op. cit. (144), pp. 14–19.

146 Una politica, op. cit. (144), p. 43.

147 Una politica, op. cit. (144), p. 38.

148 See Ginsborg, op. cit. (47). On the failure of the centre-left see Franco De Felice, L'Italia Repubblicana, Turin: Einaudi; Lanaro, , Storia dell'Italia Repubblicana, Venice, 1992Google Scholar; Scoppola, Pietro, La Repubblica dei partiti. Profilo storico della democrazia in Italia (1945–1990), Bologna: Il Mulino, 1991Google Scholar; Voulgaris, op. cit. (112).

149 Eichengreen, op. cit. (139), pp. 220–221. See also Brenner, Robert, The Economics of Global Turbulence, 1945–2005, London: Verso, 2006Google Scholar.

150 On the figures of Lombardi and Giolitti see De Felice, op. cit. (148), pp. 27–33.

151 The head of the mycology section, Tonolo, for instance, had followed Chain to London. ‘L'impianto pilota del C.I.C.M.’, ACS/ISTISAN/direzione, box 86.

152 As we have seen, after 1952 scientific research was an official duty of the ISS. However, the new law could not eliminate the tension between two different goals: public health and scientific research.

153 Camera dei Deputati, Atti Parlamentari, IV legislatura, discussioni, seduta antimeridiana del 22 ottobre 1963, p. 3482.

154 Report of 14 January 1947 of the meeting of the First and Second Committee in Camera dei Deputati, Le commissioni della Costituente per l'esame dei Disegni di Legge, III, Verbali delle sedute, Rome, 1985.

155 Camera dei Deputati, Atti Parlamentari, IV legislatura, discussioni, seduta antimeridiana del 24 ottobre 1963, p. 3733.

156 ‘Relazione e schema di disegno di legge presentati dalla commissione di studio per le modifiche da apportare ai compiti, all'ordinamento e alle strutture dell'Istituto Superiore di Sanità’, p. 11 ACS/ISTISAN/direzione, box 77.

157 ‘Relazione’, op. cit. (156), pp. 25 and 27–28.

158 ‘Relazione’, op. cit. (156), pp. 16–17.

159 Ginsborg, op. cit. (47); Voulgaris, op. cit. (113), pp. 33–53.

160 The CNEN, the ISS, the International Laboratory of Genetics and Biophysics (LIGB), the Istituto di Statistica, the National Society for Natural Gas (SNAM) and all the main universities were devastated by bitter political struggles. See Berlinguer, op. cit. (142), pp. 81–95.

161 Berlinguer, op. cit. (142), pp. 11 and 23–29.

162 Berlinguer, op. cit. (142), pp. 90–91.

163 See, for example, the history of the LIGB in Naples, another ‘American’ institution founded and directed by Adriano Buzzati-Traverso. After a protest lasting months, culminating in technicians, students and researchers occupying the facilities in spring 1969, the director resigned. The protesters demanded equal salaries, democracy in laboratory duties, and more people-oriented research, thus escaping American cultural domination. See Gemelli, op. cit. (48); and Capocci, Mauro and Corbellini, Gilberto, ‘Adriano Buzzati-Traverso and the foundation of the International Laboratory of Genetics and Biophysics in Naples (1962–1969)’, Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences (2002) 33, pp. 367–391CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

164 Sentenza della Corte d'Appello di Roma, sez. II penale, no. 2640/68, p. 50, AXL/MAR, box 2.

165 Nalini, G., ‘Il professore Giovanni Battista Marini Bettolo nell'Istituto Superiore di Sanità – La testimonianza del suo segretario’, in Giovanni Battista Marini-Bettolo (1915–1996). La figura e l'opera, Rome, 1999, p. 147–148Google Scholar. On the development of the trade unions in the ISS see Alberto Cambrosio, ‘L’émergence du chercheur scientifique: le cas des centres de recherche italiens de l'après-guerre’, PhD thesis, Université de Montreal, 1983, pp. 224–226.

166 Law of 7 August 1973, no. 519, ‘Modifiche ai compiti, all'ordinamento e alle strutture dell'Istituto Superiore di Sanità’.

167 See Leonello Paoloni, ‘Domenico Marotta’, in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani.

168 Bovet, op. cit. (23), p. 21. The CNEN was the National Nuclear Energy Committee, whose director, Felice Ippolito, was jailed due to allegations regarding the financial administration of the institution. On the Ippolito affair, see Barbara Curli, Ippolito e il nucleare italiano, Soveria Mannelli: Rubettino, 2000.

169 Albert Presas defines a ‘science maker’ as someone who is able to combine resources in order to generate new organizations or institutions. See Albert Presas, ‘A science maker for a regime: José M. Otero Navascués and Spanish science under Franco’, in Presas i Puig, op. cit. (38).

170 The term ‘technocracy’ is understood along the lines described by R. Petri: a social group that perceives itself as bearing a patriotic ethics; a group that, trusting in progress and technology, is convinced of (or at least represents itself as) being superior to the political and economic class and of acting for the good of the nation. See Petri, op. cit. (85), p. 293.

171 Majone, G., ‘Science and trans-science in standard setting’, in Science, Technology and Human Values (1984) 9, pp. 15–22CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 15.

172 Susan E. Cozzens and Eduard J. Woodhouse, ‘Science, government and the politics of science’, in Sheila Jasanoff, Gerald E. Markle, James C. Petersen and Trevor Pinch (eds.), Handbook of Science and Technology Studies, Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2001, pp. 533–553, 543.

173 On Italian scientific emigration after racial laws see Israel, Giorgio and Nastasi, Pietro, Scienza e razza nell'Italia fascista, Turin: Bollati Boringhieri, 1998, pp. 271–351Google Scholar.

174 According to Maltese, one of the reasons for Fermi's escape to the US was the failure of the project to build a particle accelerator. See Maltese, Giulio, Enrico Fermi in America. Una biografia scientifica, Bologna: Zanichelli, 2003, pp. 11–13Google Scholar.