1 '//"A. &63 



hesitation I jumped to tin- conclusion that these maggots 



had been spontaneou-l\ --i 111 the nn-at. 1 lia 



knowledge which could <jualify or oppose this condi 

 and f..r the time it i Idhood of ihe 



individual typifies that of lief here 



enunciated was that of tin- world for nearly two thousand 

 yea is. 



To th- examination of thin very point tin- 

 Frane-seo lledi, physician to the drain! Dukes Ferdinand 

 11. and Cosmo 111. any. and a member of the 



cmy del Cimenlo, addressed himself in IM^x. H,- ha 

 the maggots of putrefying flesh, ami relleeted on their 

 possible origin. Hut he was not content with m 

 lion, nor with the theoretic gueswwork which his pivd- 

 eOMBors had foiin<led upon their imperfect observations. 

 Watch in.ir meat during its passage from freshness to d 



8rior to the appearance of maggots he invariably observed 

 'iizzing round the meal and frequently alighting on 

 it. The maggots, he thought, might be the half-developed 

 progeny of these flies. 



inductive -ues> piv.vdes experiment, by which, 

 however, it mn.-i he finally tested. Itedi knew this, and 

 acted accordingly. Placing fresh meat in a jar and 

 ing the month with paper, he found that, though the 

 meat putrefied in the ordinary way, it never bred maggots, 

 while the same meat placed in open jars soon swarmed \\ith 

 these organisms. For the paper cover he then substituted 

 fine gauze, through which the odor of the meat < ould rise. 



it the Hies buzzed, and on it they laid their egg-. 

 the meshes being too small to permit the eggs to fall 

 through, no maggots were generated in the They 



:rary. hatched upon lin- 

 geries of such experiments I; 1 the belief in the 

 spontaneous generation of maggots in meat, and with it 

 doubtless manv n-lated b.-ln-fs. The com;.ai wa-' 

 i !>v Va! - hwammerdam. and lu-aiimn 



liing the notion of spontaneous gener- 

 ation from the scientific minds of their day. Indeed, as 

 regards sueii c..n,p;.-\ is those which f> 



the subject of their researches, the notion was bai 

 for,- . 



Hut the discovery and improvement of the micro 

 though giving a <; A to much thai D prc- 



