SPALLANZANI 239 



Entomologiam — sat in judgment upon the exasperated Spallan- 

 zani, and reported that while he admired the philosophic 

 character of Spallanzani's selection, he did not believe Bonnet's 

 book sufficient to give the necessary instruction in nomenclature, 

 which was the universal language used by naturalists of many 

 countries to make themselves and their works understood. 

 Spallanzani's philosophic temper made him already impatient 

 with the systematists at whom he flung the gibe of " nomen- 

 clature naturalists " ; his contumely was prodigiously increased 

 by this obscure Viennese professor's criticisms. 



On being requested, Spallanzani sat down and wrote out a 

 reasoned programme of the lectures he intended to give on 

 natural history. This programme amounted really to a defence 

 of his point of view in natural history, but the higher authorities, 

 in spite of all, were adamant, and Spallanzani was forced to 

 come to terms on the subject of nomenclature instruction with 

 the bribe of a promised increase of salary — always an irresistible 

 lure to the professor. 



But Spallanzani was by nature an intransigeant. And it is 

 hardly probable that he would entirely succumb on a principle 

 of such vital importance to his biological teaching. In fact there 

 is evidence to show that, as in the early days of his professor- 

 ship, he continued to demonstrate respiration in molluscs, fecun- 

 dation in Amphibia, and other unorthodox matters. 



To the efficiency of his lectures all his biographers bear 

 witness. Senebier wrote : " Une eloquence simple et vive 

 animait ses discours ; la purete et 1 'elegance de son elocution 

 seduisaient ceux qui l'entendaient." He possessed the teacher's 

 gift of inspiring with enthusiasm both students and the men 

 of science who came to hear him from every part of Europe. 

 The tributes of his European contemporaries were generous 

 without reserve. Bonnet said that he had discovered more 

 truths in five or six years than all the academies in half a 

 century, while " the dying hand of Haller consigned to him the 

 defence of truth and nature." 



During the first part of his residence in Pavia, he lodged in 

 an ex-convent with Prof. Scopoli, and, although when and 

 where is not known, he must have already taken Holy Orders, 

 as he was accustomed to increase his income by taking Mass 

 in a church close at hand. On quitting these lodgings he 

 engaged some rooms in a house in the attic of which his famous 



