SPONTANEOUS GENERATION. 47 



regarded as spontaneously generated. By a series of 

 similar experiments he showed that in all cases the 

 apparent production of living from dead matter was 

 due to the introduction, from without, of living 

 germs into the matter from which life seemed to 

 originate. 



So deeply rooted, however, was the doctrine of 

 spontaneous generation in the minds of men, that 

 Redi's conclusions were far from meeting with ready 

 acceptance. All kinds of objections were urged 

 against his experiments and the inferences which he 

 drew from them. Some of his opponents even went 

 so far as to assert that his conclusions were con- 

 trary to the teachings of Scripture, which, they con- 

 tended, manifestly implied, if it did not expressly 

 affirm, the doctrine of abiogenesis. In proof of 

 their view they referred to the generation of bees 

 from the lion which had been slain by Samson, 

 and which suggested the riddle that so puzzled the 

 Philistines : " Out of the eater came forth meat, 

 and out of the strong came forth sweetness." ' 



From our present way of viewing the question 

 such an objection seems very strange, to say the 

 least, but stranger still does it appear when we re- 

 flect that it was urged in the name of theology and 

 Scripture. The spell of antiquity and authority was 

 still hanging over the students of nature, and it re- 



fudges, chap, xiv, 5-14. Redi refers to the objections 

 of his adversaries in the following passage from his " Esper- 

 ienze: " " Molti e moltialtri ancora vi potrei annoverare, se non 

 fossi chiamato a rispondere alle rampogne di alcuni che 

 brusquamente mi rammentano cio che si legge nel capitolo 

 quattordicesimo del sacrosanto Libro de' Giudici." p. 45. 



