A HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



appointed surgeon-extraordinary to the king; in 1783 

 he was elected a member of the Royal Society of Medi- 

 cine and of the Royal Academy of Surgery at Paris ; in 

 1786 he became deputy surgeon-general of the army; 

 and in 1790 he was appointed surgeon-general and in- 

 spector-general of hospitals. All these positions he 

 filled with credit, and he was actively engaged in his 

 tireless pursuit of knowledge and in discharging his 

 many duties when, in October, 1793, he was stricken 

 while addressing some colleagues, and fell dead in the 

 arms of a fellow-physician. 



LAZZARO SPALLANZANI 



Hunter's great rival among contemporary physi- 

 ologists was the Italian Lazzaro Spallanzani (1729- 

 1799), one of the most picturesque figures in the 

 history of science. He was not educated either as a 

 scientist or physician, devoting himself at first to 

 philosophy and the languages, afterwards studying 

 law, and later taking orders. But he was a keen ob- 

 server of nature and of a questioning and investigat- 

 ing mind, so that he is remembered now chiefly for his 

 discoveries and investigations in the biological sciences. 

 One important demonstration was his controversion 

 of the theory of abiogenesis, or " spontaneous genera- 

 tion," as propounded by Needham and Buflon. At 

 the time of Needham's experiments it had long been 

 observed that when animal or vegetable matter had 

 lain in water for a little time long enough for it 

 to begin to undergo decomposition the water be- 

 came filled with microscopic creatures, the "infusoria 

 animalculis." This would tend to show, either that 



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