212 The Physiology of Digestion [lect. 



Reaumur's investigation left much still to be ascertained ; 

 nevertheless he established by direct experiment that the fluid 

 in the stomach, the gastric juice, had a distinct solvent power, 

 that it dissolved various constituents of food, and did so not by 

 inducing or favouring putrefaction, but by some process which 

 was antagonistic to putrefaction. And he arrived at his results 

 by the employment of a wholly new method. 



Though his results attracted attention and are referred to 

 by Haller in his Elementa, no one for some time followed his 

 line of investigation or adopted his methods. We have to wait 

 for more than a quarter of a century before any fresh real 

 addition to our knowledge of digestion took place. And for 

 this physiology went back once more to Italy. 



In the year 1729 there was born at Scandiano near Reggio 

 in Southern Italy Lazaro Spallanzani, the son of a distinguished 

 advocate. He received a very liberal education in letters, being 

 intended by his father for the profession of law, but Vallisnieri, 

 then Professor of Padua, persuaded the father to allow the son 

 to follow in his studies the bent of his mind, which was clearly 

 towards natural science and especially natural history. The 

 celebrated Laura Bassi, then holding, though a woman, the 

 chaix of mathematics at Bologna was his cousin ; he studied 

 under her and her teaching seems to have confirmed his love 

 for science. In 1754 he became Professor of Logic, Mathematics 

 and Greek at Reggio, but in 1760 was transferred to Modena to 

 fill the chair of Natural History. In 1768, the empress Maria 

 Theresa, who was developing and indeed re-establishing the 

 University of Pavia, invited him to become professor there of 

 natural history ; and he accepted the offer. He was pressed in 

 1785 on the death of Vallisnieri to succeed that great naturalist 

 in the chair of Natural History in the University of Padua ; but 

 he refused, taking advantage however of the invitation to obtain 

 leave for a long travel in Turkey. By specimens obtained in 

 this and in his other many travels he enriched the museum of 

 the University of Pavia, to which he remained devoted. He 

 died in that city on Feb. 3, 1799. In the course of his educa- 

 tion before his appointment at Reggio he had taken orders in 

 the Church, and is frequently spoken of as the Abbe Spallan- 



