THE ORIGIN OF LIFE 21 



Among the ancient Greeks, Anaximander believed that 

 animals arose through the stimulating action of mois- 

 ture. Empedocles believed that all living things arose 

 spontaneously. Aristotle, whose familiarity with nat- 

 ural history was much broader, does not subscribe to so 

 general a view, but asserts that "sometimes animals are 

 formed in putrefying soil, sometimes in plants, and some- 

 times in the fluids of other animals." 



Virgil in Book IV of the "Georgics" describes the 

 spontaneous generation of bees in the following language : 



"First, a space of ground of small dimensions, and narrowed 

 for this purpose is chosen; this they cover in with the tiling of a 

 narrow roof and with confining walls, and add four openings with a 

 slanting light turned toward the four points of the compass. 

 Then a bullock, just arching his horns upon his forehead of two 

 years old, is sought out; whilst he struggles fiercely, they close up 

 both his nostrils and his mouth; and when they have beaten him 

 to death, his battered carcass is macerated within the hide which 

 remains unbroken. Then they leave him in the pent-up chamber, 

 and lay under his sides fragments of boughs, thyme, and fresh 

 cassia. This is done when first the zephyrs stir the waves, before 

 the meadows blush with new colors, before the twittering swallow 

 suspends her nest upon the rafters. Meanwhile, the animal juices, 

 warmed in the softened bones, ferment: and living things of 

 wonderful aspect, first devoid of feet, and in a little while buzzing 

 with wings, swarm together, and more and more take to the thin 

 air, till they burst away like a shower poured down from summer 

 clouds; or like an arrow from the impelling string, when the swift 

 Parthians first begin to fight." 



Ovid, in his poetic account of the Pythagorean philos- 

 ophy, commits its followers to belief in many forms of 

 spontaneous generation: 



" By this sure experiment we know 

 That living creatures from corruption grow: 

 Hide in a hollow pit a slaughtered steer, 

 Bees from his putrid bowels will appear, 

 Who like their parents, haunt the fields and 

 Bring their honey-harvest home, and hope another spring. 

 The warlike steed is multiplied we find, 



