THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. 257 



thought that this c primordium' might arise c spontc 

 et casu,' so that he can scarcely be said to have been 

 a strict believer in the continuity of Life. 



The first adversary who seriously attacked the old 

 and then accepted doctrines was Redi, a Florentine 

 physician, who, in 1638, announced and demonstrated 

 before one of the learned academies, of which he was 

 a member, that the maggots which appear in putrefying 

 flesh are deposited by flies, and are not engendered, as 

 had been generally 1 supposed, in the flesh itself. This 

 demonstration gave rise to much discussion at the time, 

 and undoubtedly shook the faith of many in the truth 

 of the old doctrines. But even Redi himself, it ap- 

 pears, rather attempted to disprove some alleged cases 

 of c spontaneous generation/ than to disprove the whole 

 doctrine. He inclined to the belief that parasites were 

 produced from a modification of the substance of the 



1 The Rev. M. J. Berkeley has lately called attention to the fact that 

 Homer was fully aware of the real origin of the larvz which appear in 

 putrefying carcases. In Iliad xix. 23-27 there occurs the following 

 passage : 



fia\' alvus 



fJLOi To<ppa MfVoiriov aXKipov vlov 

 Mvtai KaSSvffai Hard, \a\norvitovs &T(i\as 

 Ev\as l-yyetvowTcw, o.^fiffaoj(n 8 vtKpuv 

 'E/f 5' aiajv irffparai Kara S xP a v< * V 

 Which is thus rendered in the late Lord Derby's translation : 



Yet fear I for Menoetius' noble son, 

 Lest in his spear-inflicted wounds the flies 

 May gender worms, and desecrate the dead, 

 And, life extinct, corruption reach his flesh.' 

 VOL. I. S 



