NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 435 



phers, declared that bees are generated out of decomposed veal, beetles 

 out of horse-flesh, grasshoppers out of mules, and scorpions out of 

 crabs. Under the influence of the biblical account of Nebuchadnezzar, 

 which appears to have taken strong hold upon mediaeval thought in 

 science, he declared that human beings had been changed into animals, 

 especially into swine, wolves, and owls. As to fossil remains, he, like 

 Tertullian, thought that they resulted from the Flood of Noah.* 



In the following century Bede developed the same orthodox tradi- 

 tions in science ; but he held with St. Jerome that the reason why God 

 did not pronounce the work of the second day good is to be found in 

 the fact that there is something essentially evil in the number two. 

 As to the Deluge, he discussed the question as to the amount of food 

 taken into the ark, and declared that there was no need of a supply 

 for more than one day, since God could throw the animals into a deep 

 sleep, or otherwise miraculously make one day's supply sufficient.f 



The difiiculty in making Noah's ark large enough to contain all 

 the animals had begun to be seriously felt even at that period. Origen 

 had dealt with it by supposing that the " cubit " in Noah's time was 

 six times greater. Bede explained Noah's ability to complete such 

 a Herculean task by sujsposing that he gave to it a hundred years ; 

 and he leaned toward diminishing the number of animals taken into 

 the ark, supporting himself upon Augustine's theory of the after de- 

 velopment of insects out of carrion. In this way the strain upon faith 

 required in believing that all the animals were literally brought into 

 the ark was somewhat lessened. 



The best guess in a geological sense among the mediaeval followers 

 of St. Augustine was made by an Irish monkish scholar,J who, in order 

 to diminish the difiiculty arising from the distribution of animals after 

 the flood, especially in view of the fact that the same animals are 

 found in Ireland as in England, held that various lands now separated 

 were once connected. Fortunately for this theologian, the fact that 

 the kangaroo is only found on a continent in the South Pacific, and so, 

 in accordance with the theory, must either by a single leap have jumped 

 from Mount Ararat to Australia, or have found his way across a cause- 

 way temporarily erected between Armenia and the South Pacific con- 

 tinent, had not been discovered. 



These general lines of thought upon geology and its kindred science 

 of zoology were followed by St. Thomas Aquinas and by the whole 

 body of mediceval theologians, so far as they gave any attention to 

 such subjects. 



But there was one influence coming from the Hebrew Scriptures 

 which wrought to mitigate ideas regarding the worthlessness of any 

 study of Nature ; this came from the grand utterances in the Psalms 



* See Isidore, " Etymologia?," xi, 4, xiii, 22. ■)• See Bede, "Hexaemeron," i, ii. 



X The so-called Pseudo-Augustine. His treatise, " De mirabilibus mundi," is usually 

 appended to the works of Augustine. 



