BIOGENESIS AND ABIOGENESIS 113 



showed in 1698 * that maggots found in putrid 

 flesh had not arisen from the meat but from 

 the eggs of flies deposited thereon, and more- 

 over demonstrated the fact that if the meat 

 was kept covered with gauze no maggots ap- 

 peared in it. And as a result of this and of 

 other observations the idea of spontaneous 

 generation was put aside for a time, indeecf 

 until the microscope began to reveal the sur- 

 prising number and variety of small living 

 objects which had previously been hidden 

 from men's eyes. The discussion continued 

 at intervals during the eighteenth century and 

 it is curious to note that two of the most 

 active antagonists were both Catholic priests, t 

 Needham (1718-1781) who supported the theory 

 of spontaneous generation, and SpallanzaniJ Spallanzani 

 who opposed it. It was Spallanzani who 

 first performed the experiment of boiling 

 infusions for a sufficient time in hermetically 

 sealed vessels, after which treatment, as he 

 showed, no life was developed in them. 

 After this demonstration the theory of spon- 



* Francisci Redi Patritii Bretini, Experimented Circa 

 Gencrationem Insectorum. 



t Turberville Needham, the first Catholic ecclesiastic to 

 be elected F.R.S. (in 1746), was born 1731 and died 1787. 

 Driesch incorrectly describes him as a Jesuit. 



$ Lazaro Spallanzani (1729-1799), also incorrectly described 

 by Driesch as a Jesuit, was, like Needham, a secular priest. 

 A brief account of these two men will be found in my book, 

 " Science and Morals and other Essays," Burns and Gates. 



H 



