The Birth of Microbiology
SPALLANZANI, Lazzaro, and John Turberville NEEDHAM. Nouvelles recherches sur les découvertes microscopiques, et la generation des corps organisés … de M. l’Abbé Spalanzani … Avec des notes, de recherches physiques & métaphysiques sur la nature & la religion, & une nouvelle théorie de la Terre. Par M. de Needham. London and Paris: Chez Lacombe. 1769.
Two parts in one volume, 8vo. Contemporary mottled calf, sympathetically rebacked, spines gilt in compartments, red morocco lettering piece, marbled endpapers, edges stained red; pp. [2], ii, liv, [2], 298, [4], xvi, 293, [3], with 9 engraved plates (6 folding) by ‘le françois’, woodcut head- and tailpieces; extremities skilfully restored; some light dampstaining, slight offsetting to plates, but generally very good.
First French edition of Lazzaro Spallanzani’s landmark work, the first systematic refutation of the theory of spontaneous generation, published together with essays by Spallanzani’s rival John Tuberville Needham.
First published in Italian in 1765, the Nouvelle recherche was the first biological work of the priest and university professor Lazzaro Spallanzani (1729-1799). The advancements in microscopy during the seventeenth century had unveiled a new world of microorganisms to scientists. The English Catholic priest and natural scientist John Turberville Needham (1713-1781) claimed to have demonstrated the theory of spontaneous generation after observing the growth of small organisms in chicken broth which had been briefly boiled, cooled in open air, and then placed in sealed flasks. Needham concluded that there was a life-generating force inherent in certain types of inorganic matter, that allowed living microbes to create themselves given sufficient time.
Spallanzani, having identified some significant errors in Needham’s experiments, replicated them with variations. His experiments demonstrated that spontaneous generation is not an inherent feature of matter and can be eliminated by boiling for an hour. Furthermore, if the material remained hermetically sealed, microbes did not reappear. By suggesting that microbes travel through the air and can be destroyed by boiling, Spallanzani paved the way for Louis Pasteur’s research almost a century later.
Needham’s essays in the second part of the volume address various topics related to religion and nature, including a discourse on the existence of God and the measurement of the altitudes of the Alps.
ESTC T131277
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