Highlights in the History of Microbiology 23 



when they have beaten him to death, his battered carcass is 

 macerated within the hide which remains unbroken. Then they 

 leave him in the pent-up chamber, and lay under his sides frag- 

 ments of boughs, thyme, and fresh cassia. This is done when first 

 the zephyrs stir the waves, before the meadows blush new colors, 

 before the twittering swallow suspends her nest upon the rafters. 

 Meanwhile, the animal juices, warmed in the softened bones, 

 ferment; and living things of wonderful aspect, first devoid of feet, 

 and in a little while buzzing with wings, swarm together, and more 

 and more take the thin air, till they burst away like a shower 

 poured down from the summer clouds; or like an arrow from the 

 impelling string, when the swift Parthians first began to fight." 

 This formula sounds like the hallucinations of an alcoholic, but the 

 "facts" were undoubtedly believed to be true, at least by Vergil. 



An interesting comment by Homer indicates that he knew the 

 origin of flies. He put these words into the mouth of Achilles: 

 "But I greatly dread that flies may enter into the mighty son of 

 Menoities through the wounds made by the bronze weapons, and 

 beget worms in him and defile his corpse." The proof of Homer's 

 words was not forthcoming until 1668 when Francesco Redi ( 1626- 

 1697), poet and physician of Arezzo, showed that if meat was 

 properly covered with gauze, no maggots would develop on the 

 meat, and only when the egg-laying flies gained access to the meat, 

 were mas^gots able to arise. 



Theophrastus Paracelsus (1493-1541), a Swiss medical phi- 

 losopher, offered his formula for the creation of human beings 

 ( homunculi ) . "Place certain substances in a bottle, stopper it, and 

 bury it in a dung heap. Everv day certain incantations must be 

 uttered over the submerged bottle. In time, a small being will 

 appear in the bottle." However, he did admit that he was never 

 successful in keeping the homunculus alive after taking it from the 

 bottle. His instructions, I'm sure vou will agree, were rather 

 vague, and he never was able to demonstrate publicly his spon- 

 taneous generation. 



Should you desire to produce mice, Jean Baptiste van Helmont 

 (1577-1644), a physician and alchemist, offered this: "Place a 



