The Bufalini Prize.
Washington, Governement Printing Office: Department of the Interior Bureau of Education, 1883. Item #1118
8vo. 230 x 145 mm., [9 x 5 1/2 inches]. 5 pp. Drop title, self wrappers; lightly soiled at edges.
Academic prize of 5,000 Lira for the best dissertation on the use of the scientific method and the its present day practice by all the departments of science in Europe and the United States. Maurizio Bufalini (d. 1787-1875) was a prominent member of the Royal Institute for Higher Practical Studies in Florence and a medical doctor whose research into the diagnosis and treatment of disease was his life's work. This prize was a result of his observation that the use of the scientific method was not being utilized and he initiated a twenty year study to gather data on the practices of doctors in hospitals and private practice.
See Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani v. 14 for a information on his life and career.
Price: $15.00