SPONTANEOUS GENERATION 157 



experiments had not expelled all the oxygen and 

 thus prevented the existence and development of 

 anyjife. 



In the further experiments which this query 

 gave rise to, we meet with another illustrious 

 Catholic name, that of Theodor Schwann, better 

 known as the originator of that fundamental 

 piece of scientific knowledge, the cell-theory. 

 Theodor Schwann (1810-1882) was born at 

 Neuss and educated by the Jesuits, first at Cologne, 

 afterward at Bonn. After studying at the 

 Universities of Wurzburg and Berlin he became 

 professor in the Catholic University of Louvain, 

 where his name was one of the principal glories 

 of this now wrecked seat of learning. Thence he 

 went as professor to Liege, where he died. He 

 was, says his biography in the Encyclopedia 

 Britannic a, " of a peculiarly gentle and amiable 

 character and remained a devout Catholic through- 

 out his life." Schwann's experiments tended to 

 show that the introduction of air of course 

 containing oxygen did not lead to the production 

 of life, if the air had first been thoroughly 

 sterilised. It was thought that this question 

 had been finally answered, when it was reopened 

 by Pouchet, in 1859. ^e was a Frenchman, the 

 director of the Natural History Museum of 

 Rouen, but as to his religious views I have no 

 information. It is quite probable, however, 

 that he was a Catholic. Pouchet and all on 

 his side were finally so far as there can be 

 finality in such a matter disposed of by 

 Pasteur, of whose distinction as a man of 



