p 



' TI/£: BE G INNINGS OF LIFE. 



f 



f 

 I 



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suggested by 



"''^ really em. 



In illustration 

 the following 



■immingupliis 



animalibus et 

 ;, sive in aliis, 

 putrescentibos, 

 •rincipio v'mtt 



mordium insit 

 )i versa scilicet 



:i 





quorum 



vario 



[lis 

 ive 



eria 



t, 



animalium 



niunt, f^ 

 efficient! • 



uod P««'' 



t 



vel ab * 



ant.' 



derive 



its ii"' 



} 



■> 



Harve/ 



also 



I 



act 



ini«65.^^' 



•It 



y 



'257 



r 



thought that this 'primordium' might arise 'sponte 

 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 « 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 



L 



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

 Homer was fully aware of the real origin of the larv^ which appear in 

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

 passage : 



oXkh [laX* alvws 

 Adho) firj fxoi Tofpa Mei/oiTtov aXfCtfioy vtov 

 Mvtai Kahdvaai Kara x^^^otvttovs wreiXas 

 Ev\as kjyeivojT/Tai, du/ctaaojai de ve/cpuv 

 Efc 5* alihv treiparai — fcard, de XP^^ iravra aairriy. 



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



* Yet fear I for Mencetius* noble son, 

 Lest in his spear-inflicted wounds the flies 



VOL. I. 



May gender worms, and desecrate the dead, 

 And, life extinct, corruption reach his flesh.' 



S 



