154 CATHOLIC WRITERS AND 



be any doubt that he was a Catholic. At any 

 rate there is no doubt whatever as to the other 

 persons now to be mentioned in connection with 

 the controversy, which again became active about 

 a century after Redi had published his book. The 

 antagonists on this occasion were both of them 

 Catholic priests, and both of them deserve some 

 brief notice. 



John Turberville Needham (1713-1781) was 

 born in London and belonged on both sides to 

 old Catholic families. He was educated at 

 Douay and ordained priest at Cambray in 1738. 

 After teaching in that place for some time he 

 journeyed to England and became head-master 

 of the once celebrated school for Catholic boys 

 at Twyford, near Winchester. From there he 

 went for a short time to Lisbon as professor of 

 philosophy in the English College. Subse- 

 quently he travelled with various Peers making 

 " the grand tour." After that he retired to 

 Paris, where he was elected a member of the 

 Academic des Sciences. He was the first director 

 of the Imperial Academy in Brussels ; a canon, 

 first of Dendermonde and afterward of Soignies. 

 He died in Brussels and was buried in the Abbey 

 of Condenberg. Needham was a man of really 

 great scientific attainments, and perhaps nothing 

 proves the estimation in which he was held more 

 than the fact that in 1746 he was elected a Fellow 

 of the Royal Society, being the first Catholic 

 priest to become a member of that distinguished 

 body. When one remembers the attitude at that 

 time, and much later, of Englishmen towards 



