Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 984

LAZZARO SPALLANZANI (1729-1799) Opuscoli di fisica animale, e vegetabile. Società tipografica 1776 Vol. I: xvi, 304 [2] pp., 2 fold. plates; Vol. II: [4] 277 [3] pp., 4 fold. plates. 20.5 cm.

For more information on this author or work, see number: 983

A long controversy with John Turberville Needham (1713-1781) and Comte de Buffon (1707-1788) resulted in a series of essays, published in this two-volume work, in which Spallanzani rejected the then-popular theory of spontaneous generation. The work also contains two letters written to Spallanzani by Charles Bonnet (see No. 947), a well-known supporter of the theory of preformation. Most of the experiments described in the Opuscoli consist of observations Spallanzani made on infusions of vegetable matter heated in closed vessels for various periods of time and set aside to await developments that would later be viewed with the eye or under the microscope. Although the matter of spontaneous generation was not resolved by this book, it clearly foreshadowed subsequent experiments by other investigators which culminated nearly a century later in Pasteur's epic work. The compilation contains six folding plates which depict over forty of Spallanzani's microscopic observations.

See Related Record(s): 947

Cited references: Garrison-Morton 102

Gift of John Martin, M.D.