Experiments on the Generation of Insects |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Ælianus antennæ arise Aristotle asserts balls bees believe birds black flies born boxes bred breed butterflies called caterpillars chrysalis cocoon color covered creatures dead bodies dead flesh decayed deer devour earth eggs pupæ escaped experiment Father Kircher females Firenze fish FRANCESCO REDI frogs fruits Galen gall gnats Grand Duke Greek hairy hatched head Hence History of Animals holm oak Honoré Fabri hornets horns insects intorno killed kind large number larger leaves legs lice live Mattiuoli meat ment microscope natural never Nicholas Steno observed opinion Ovid philosopher PIDOCCHIO pigeon plants Pliny Pliny's poet poison POLLINO produce Redi scorpions Scorpius seed seen shape sheep shell similar skin snakes Sperling spiders sting sweet basil tail Tertullian things Thomas Moufet thread transformation trees truth tun-fish Tuscan Varro vessel Vipers wasps winged animals worms wormy writers yellow
Popular passages
Page 33 - I then filled the same number of flasks in the same way, only leaving these open. It was not long before the meat and the fish, in these second vessels, became wormy and flies were seen entering and leaving at will; but in the closed flasks I did not see a worm, though many days had passed since the dead flesh had been put in them. Outside on the paper cover there was now and then a deposit, or a maggot that eagerly sought some crevice by which to enter and obtain nourishment.
Page 33 - Having considered these things, I began to believe that all worms found in meat were derived directly from the droppings of flies, and not from the putrefaction of the meat, and I was still more confirmed in this belief by having observed that, before the meat grew wormy, flies had hovered over it, of the same kind as those that later bred in it. Belief would be vain without the confirmation of experiment, hence in the middle of July I put...
Page 34 - Not content with these experiments, I tried many others at different seasons, using different vessels. In order to leave nothing undone, I even had pieces of meat put under ground, but though remaining buried for weeks, they never bred worms, as was always the case when flies had been allowed to light on the meat. One day a large number of worms, which had bred in some buffalo-meat, were killed by my order; having placed part in a closed dish, and part in an open one, nothing appeared in the first...
Page 47 - Forthwith I comprehended, and was certain, That this the sect was of the caitiff wretches Hateful to God and to his enemies. These miscreants, who never were alive, Were naked, and were stung exceedingly By gadflies and by hornets that were there.
Page 24 - ... way are engendered both those creatures that are said to arise spontaneously, by chance or accident, and derive their first matter or take their origin from putrefaction, filth, excrement, dew, or the parts of plants and animals, as well as those that arise congenerately from the semen of animals. Because this is common to all living creatures, viz. : that they derive their origin either from semen or eggs, whether this semen have proceeded from others of the same kind, or have come by chance...
Page 25 - Aristotle2 quotes health as an illustration. And the thing is not different as respects the generation, in so far as it is from seed, of certain animals : their semina are either present by accident, or they proceed from an univocal agent of the same kind. For even in fortuitous semina there is an inherent motive principle of generation, which procreates from itself and of itself; and this is the same as that which is found in the semina of congenerative animals, — a power, to wit, of forming a...
Page 77 - Nilus et antiquo sua flumina reddidit alveo aetherioque recens exarsit sidere limus, plurima cultores versis animalia glaebis 425 inveniunt, et in his quaedam modo coepta sub ipsum nascendi spatium, quaedam imperfecta suisque trunca vident numeris, et eodem in corpore saepe altera pars vivit, rudis est pars altera tellus.
Page 33 - I put a snake, some fish, some eels of the Arno, and a slice of milk-fed ( !) veal in four large wide-mouthed flasks; having well closed and sealed them, I then filled the same number of flasks in the same way, only leaving these open. It was not long before the meat and the fish, in these second vessels, became wormy and flies were seen entering and leaving at will; but in the closed flasks I did not see a worm, though many days had passed since the dead flesh had been put in them.
Page 42 - I quoque, delectos mactatos obrue tauros ; 365 (cognita res usu,) de putri viscere passim florilegae nascuntur apes, quae more parentum rura colunt, operique favent, in spemque laborant.
Page 34 - I believe, however, that the aforesaid honey-water only serves to attract the living flies to breed in the corpses of their comrades and to drop their eggs therein. . . . Leaving this long digression and returning to my argument, it is necessary to tell you that although I thought I had proved that the flesh of dead animals could not engender worms unless the semina of live ones were deposited therein, still, to remove all doubt, as the trial had been made with...