SPONTANEOUS GENERATION. 49 



of the lower animalculse, from suitably prepared in- 

 fusions of animal or vegetable matter. 



This apparent victory was, however, but ephem- 

 eral. The experiments in question were taken up 

 by a distinguished Italian ecclesiastic, the Abbate 

 Spallanzani, who subjected them to a rigid and ex- 

 haustive examination. The result of his labors 

 issued in proving incontestably that the experiments 

 of Needham were defective, and that his conclusions, 

 therefore, were unwarranted. Spallanzani demon- 

 strated that when the necessary precautions are 

 taken against the admission of germs into the infu- 

 sions employed, no animalcules whatever are devel- 

 oped, and that the theories and conclusions of 

 Buffon and Needham were not sustained by the 

 facts in the case. 



But, notwithstanding the investigations of Redi 

 and his successors, Leeuwenhoek, Swammerdam, 

 Reaumur and Vallisneri, and despite the researches 

 of Spallanzani, Schultze and Schwann, Van Siebold, 

 Leuckart, and Van Beneden, there were not wanting 

 men who still pinned their faith to the theory of 

 abiogenesis. Foremost among these were the cele- 

 brated chemists Berzelius and Liebig. " Was it 

 certain," they asked, "that in the experiments 

 which had hitherto been conducted, that the proper- 

 ties of the air, or oxygen of the air, or of the men- 

 strua themselves, had not been essentially changed, 

 and thus had rendered them incompetent to give 

 rise to the phenomena which they would exhibit 

 in their natural and chemically unchanged condi- 

 tion?" 



E.-4 



