SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES 173 



we find developing, especially in the eighteenth century, the controversy 

 between ovists and animalculists, as the champions of the importance of the 

 egg and the spermatozoa respectively in fertilization were called — a con- 

 troversy which was to set science by the ears for decades. In some of the fol- 

 lowing chapters more light will be thrown on this controversy as well as on 

 the dispute between the respective champions of epigenesis and preformation 

 which was raging at the same time. 



The close of the great period in the history of anatomy 

 With this, our account of the brilliant epoch in the history of biology repre- 

 sented by the seventeenth century comes to a close. It is perfectly natural that 

 towards the end of that century, and during the decades immediately follow- 

 ing, interest should wane in just those spheres in which progress had been 

 greatest; the forced march had to be followed by a period of mustering of 

 forces and reflection, during which the results achieved had to be weighed 

 from the theoretical point of view and classified. It is therefore worth while 

 considering what were the solutions which the next age sought to give to 

 the theoretical questions that had arisen in connexion with the great practi- 

 cal advance made in the field of anatomy and experimental biology. In the 

 following chapter some samples will be given of theories of this kind. 



