THE ORIGIN OF LIFE ica 



Voltaire, produced in 1769, a tract in which 

 he laughed to scorn the operations of the 

 English cleric who had engendered eels in the 

 gravy of boiled mutton. He describes as a 

 ridiculous mistake "the unfortunate experi- 

 ments of Needham so triumphantly refuted 

 by Spallanzani." Elsewhere he wittily re- 

 marks, "It is strange that men should deny 

 a Creator and yet attribute to themselves 

 the power of creating eels." 



All the wit of Voltaire could not, however, 

 obtain for the work of Spallanzani that 

 credence which it so palpably deserved, and 

 the subject remained a source of philosophical 

 discussion. 



The last stage was opened by a paper 

 which was sent to the Academie des Sciences 

 in 1858, by M. Pouchet, a French scientist 

 of high standing. The new departure claimed 

 by Pouchet was that, exercising the greatest 

 care to prevent any error creeping in, he 

 had been able to engender living micro- 

 organisms, plant and animal, in culture media 

 exposed only to artificial air or oxygen. 

 The point was that such organisms appeared 

 in a medium absolutely free from atmospheric 

 air, and in which, as a consequence, no germ 

 could possibly have arrived as an air-borne 

 particle. 



