221 CRITIQUES AND ADDRESSES. [x. 



adversaries declared that the generation of bees from the 

 carcase of a dead lion is affirmed, in the Book of Judges, 

 to have been the origin of the famous riddle with which 

 Samson perplexed the Philistines : 



" Out of the eater came forth meat, 

 And out of the strong came forth sweetness." 



Against all odds, however, Eedi, strong with the 

 strength of demonstrable fact, did splendid battle for 

 Biogenesis ; but it is remarkable that he held the doctrine 

 in a sense which, if he had lived in these times, would 

 have infallibly caused him to be classed among the 

 defenders of " spontaneous generation." " Omne vivum 

 ex vivo," " no life without antecedent life," aphoristically 

 sums up Redi's doctrine ; but he went no further. It is 

 most remarkable evidence of the philosophic caution and 

 impartiality of his mind, that although he had specula- 

 tively anticipated the manner in which grubs really are 

 deposited in fruits and in the galls of plants, he delibe- 

 rately admits that the evidence is insufficient to bear him 

 out ; and he therefore prefers the supposition that they 

 are generated by a modification in the living substance of 

 the plants themselves. Indeed, he regards these vege- 

 table growths as organs, by means of which the plant 

 gives rise to an animal, and looks upon this production 

 of specific animals as the final cause of the galls and of 

 at any rate some fruits. And he proposes to explain the 

 occurrence of parasites within the animal body in the 

 same way. 1 



1 The passage (" Esperienze," p. 129) is worth quoting in full : 

 " Se dovessi palesarvi il mio sentimento crederei che i frutti, i legumi, gli 

 alberi e le foglie, in due maniere inverminassero. Una, perche venendo i bachi 

 per di fuora, e cercando 1' aliraento, col rodere ci aprono la strada. ed arrivano 

 alia piu interna midolla de' frutti e de' legui. L'altra maniera si e, che io per 

 me stimerei, che non fosse gran fatto disdicevole il credere, che quell' anima o 

 quella virtu, la quale genera i fiori ed i frutti nelle piante viventi, sia quella 

 stessa che generi ancora i bachi di esse piante. E ehi sa forse, che molti frutti 



