— 188 — 



The final extinction of tliis absurd notion among civilized 

 natioiis was due to two causes: 



1.° among scientific men, to the confutation of the old 

 belief in spontaneous generation, and the general recognition 

 of the principle: omne vivum ex ovo, proclaimed by William 

 Harvey (1651) and by the great italian naturalist Redi (1668); (1) 

 2." among the ignorant crowd, to the introduction of a 

 sanitary police, which prevents carcasses from lying about, 

 and affording the spectacle of bee-like llies swarming aromid 

 them. 



§. 2. — Causes of the long duration of tlie Bngonìa-cr«2e and 

 circumstances of its final confutation. 



Modem commentators of greek and latin àuthors have 

 treated the Bugoìiia with a contemptuous sneer, (2) without 

 taking into consideration that a superstition so malversai and 

 so persistent cannot be dismissed so easily, and must neoes- 

 sarily have some foundation in fact. The refutation of an 

 error is not complete, until the source of the error is revealed. 

 In a short paper on the geographical distribution of the ily 

 Eristalis tenax (Entom. M. Mag. XXIII, p. 97-99, London, 1886), 

 I introduced incidentally the explanation of the Bugonìa^ foun- 

 ded upon a resemblance of this ily to the honey-bee. Already 

 at that time it seemed strange to me that siich an obvious 



(1) Francesco Eèdi's, work, Esperienze intorno alla generazione degl'insetti, ap- 

 peared in Florence, 1668. F. Redi, born in Arezzo 1626, died in Pisa, 1697. He was 

 tlie physician of the Gran Duke of Tuscany, and at tlie same time a naturalist, a 

 poet, and a literary personage in general. His letters are charming. I possess a 

 Neapolitan edition of his complete works in seven volumes, dated 1778, and shall 

 quote from it. 



(2) For instance Joh. Beckmann, commentator of Antigonus Caristius, Joh. H. 

 Voss, translator and commentator of the Georgics etc. I owe my acquaintance with 

 these hooks to Prof. Zangemeister, Director of the University Library in Heidelberg. 

 The Commentaries of Prof. Martyn, on the Georgica (London, 1741), which I fìnd 

 qiioted in Smith' s Diction. Biogr. and Mythol. etc. I have not been able to consult. 



