Ixxvi REPORT 1870. 



agency of preexisting liviug matter, took definite shape ; and had, hence- 

 forward, a right to be considered and a claim to be refuted, in each particular 

 case, before the production of li\dug matter in any other way could be 

 admitted by careful reasoncrs. It will be necessary for me to refer to this 

 hypothesis so fre(iuently, that, to save circumlocution, I shall call it the 

 hypothesis oi Biogenesis ; and I shall term the contrary doctrine — ^that living 

 matter may be produced by not living matter — the hypothesis of Ahiogenesis. 

 In the seventeenth ceutury, as I have said, the latter was the dominant 

 view, sanctioned alike by antiquity and by authority; and it is interesting to 

 observe that Kedi did not escape the customary tax upon a discoverer of 

 having to defend himself against the charge of impugning the authority of 

 the Scriptures * ; for his adversaries declared that the generation of bees 

 from the carcass 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 

 Philistiaes : 



" Out of the eater came forth meat, 

 And out of the strong came forth sweetness." 



Against all odds, however, Hedi, 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 ho 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 B-edi's doctrine ; but he went no further. It is most remark- 

 able evidence of the philosophic caution and impartiality of his mind, that, 

 although he had speculativel)' anticipated the manner in which grubs really 

 are deposited in fruits and in the galls of plants, he deliberately admits that 

 the evidence is insufficient to bear him out ; and he therefore prefers the 

 supposition that they are generated by a modification of the living substance 

 of the plants themselves. Indeed, he regards these vegetable 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 para- 

 sites within the animal body in the same way t. 



paterno ; e che le cami, e I'erbe, e I'altrc cose tutte putrefatte, o putrefattibili non facciano 

 altra parte, nij abbiano altro ufizio nella generazione degl' insctti, se non d'apprestiire uii 

 luogo o un nido proporzionato, in cui dagli animali nel tempo della fighatura sieno por- 

 tati, e partoriti i vermi, o I'uova o I'altre semenze dei vermi, i quali tosto che nati sono, 

 trovano in esso nido un sufRciente alimento abilissimo per nutricarsi : e se in quello non 

 son portate dalle madri queste suddette semenze, niente mai, e replicatamente niente, vi 

 s'ingegneri e nasca." — Redi, Esj^cr/ence, pp. 14-16. 



* " Molti, e molti altri ancora vi potrei annoverare, se non fossi chiamato a rispondero 

 alle rampogne di alcuni, che bruscamente mi rammentano cio, che si legge nel capitolo 

 quattordicesimo del sacrosanto Libro de' giudici " — Redi, I. c. p. 45. 



t The passage (Esperienze, p. 129) is •n-orth quoting in full: — 

 '" " Se dovessi palesarvi il mio sentimento crederei che i frutti, i legumi, gli alberi e lo 

 foglie, in due maniere inverminassero. Una, perchc renendo i bachi per di fuora, e cer- 

 cando I'alimento, col rodere ci aprono la strada, ed arrivano alia piu interna midolla de' 

 frutti e de' legni. L'altra maniera si e, die io per me stimerei, che non fosse gran fatto 

 disdicerole il credere, che quell' anima o quella virtu, la quale genera i fieri ed i frutti nelle 

 piante viventi, sia quella stessa che generi ancora i baelii di esse piante. E chi sa forse, 

 che molti frutti degli alberi non sieno prodotti, non per un flue primario e principale, nia 

 bcnsi per un uffizio secondario e servile, destinato alia generazione di que' vermi, servendo 

 a loro in vece di matrice, in cui dimorino un prefisso e determinate tempo ; 11 quale arri- 

 vato escan fuora a godere il sole. 

 I " Io m' immagino, che questo mio pensiero non vi parra totalmente un paradosso ; mentre 



