But, Secondly, we affirm, That no Infect or Animal did ever proceed æquivocally from Putrefaction, unless in Miraculous Cafes, as in Egypt by the Divine Judgments; but all are generated from Parents of their own Kind, Male and Female: a Discovery of that great Importance, that perhaps few Inventions of this Age can pretend to equal Usefulness and Merit; and which alone is fufficient (if the Vices of Men did not captivate their Reason) to explode and exrteminate rank Atheism out of the World. For if all Animals be propagated by Generation from Parents of their own Species, and there be no instance in Nature of even a Gnat or a Mite either now or in former Ages fpontaneoufly produced de novo: how came there to be fuch Animals in Being, and whence could they proceed? There is no need of much study and deliberation about it: for either they have existed eternally by infinite Succeffions already gone and past, which is in its own Notion abfurd and impoffible; or their Origin must be afcri- Former bed to a Supernatural and Divine Power, that formed and created them. Now to prove our affertion about the Seminal production of all living Creatures; that we may not repeat the Reasons which we have offer'd before against the first Mechanical Formation of Human BoD 2 dies,

See the

Sermon,

dies, which are equally valid against the spontaneous Origin of the minutest Infects; we appeal to Obfervation and Experiment, which carry the strongest conviction with them, and make the moft fenfible and lafting impreffions. For whereas it hath been the general Tradition and Belief, that Maggots and Flies breed in "I putrefied Carcaffes, and particularly Bees come rs, from Oxen, and Hornets from Horfes, and Scorpions from Crabfish, &c. all is now found to be Fable and Miftake. That fagacious and Nicander. learned Naturalift Francifco Redi made innugeneratio- merable trials with the putrid Flesh of all forts or of Beafts and Fowls and Fishes and Serpents,

σφηκών

γένεσις,

ταῦροι δι

Redi De

ne infe

with corrupted Cheese and Herbs and Fruits and even Infects themselves: and he conftantly found that all thofe Kinds of Putrefaction did only afford a Neft and Aliment for the Eggs and Young of thofe Infects that he admitted to come there; but produced no Animal of themselves by a spontaneous Formation For when he fuffer'd those things to putrefie in Hermetically fealed Glaffes, and Veffels close cover'd with Paper; and not only so, left the Exclufion of the Air might be fuppofed to hinder the Experiment, but in Veffels cover'd with fine Lawn, fo as to admit the Air and keep out the Infects: no living thing was ever

pro

produced there, though he expofed them to the action of the Sun, in the warm climate of Florence, and in the kindeft season of the year. Even Flies crush'd and corrupted, when inclosed in fuch Veffels, did never procreate a new Fly: though there, if in any cafe, one would have expected that success. And when the Veffels were open, and the Infects had free access to the aliment within them, he diligently observed, that no other Species were produced, but of fuch as he faw go in and feed and deposit their Eggs there: which they would readily do in all Putrefaction; even in a mucilage of bruifed Spiders, where Worms were foon hatch'd out of fuch Eggs, and quickly changed into Flies of the fame kind with their Parents. And was not that a furprizing Tranfformation indeed, if according to the vulgar opinion those dead and corrupted Spiders fpontaneously changed into Flies? And thus far we are obliged to the diligence of Redi: from whence we may conclude, That no dead Flesh nor Herbs nor other putrefied Bodies, nor any thing that hath not then actually either a vegetable or animal Life can produce any Infect. And if we should allow, as he did, that every Animal and Plant doth naturally breed and nourish by its fubftance fome peculiar Infect:

yet

yet the Atheist could make no advantage of this Conceffion as to a like Origination of Mankind. For furely 'tis beyond even an Atheift's Credulity and Impudence, to affirm that the first men might proceed out of the Galls and Tumors of Leaves of Trees, as fome Maggots and Flies are fuppofed to do now; or might grow upon Trees, as the story goes about Barnacles; or perhaps might be the Lice of fome vaft prodigious Animals, whofe Species is now extinct. But though we fuppofe him guilty of fuch an extravagant folly, he will only shift the difficulty, and not wholly remove it; for we shall still expect an account of the spontaneous Formation of thofe mountainous kind of Animals and Men-bearing Trees. And as to the Worms that are bred in the intestines and other inward parts of Living Creatures, their production is not material to our prefent enquiry, till fome Atheist do affirm, that his own Ancestors had fuch an Original. I say, if we should allow this conceffion of Redi, it would do no fervice to our Adverfaries; but even here also they are defeaus de Gal ted by the happy curiofity of Malpighi and omerdam thers, who obferved and discovered, That each de of thofe Tumors and Excrescences of Plants, out enhoeck of which generally iffues a Fly or a Worm, are

Malpighi

lis,Swam

de gen. In

fe&.Lew

Epiftol.

at

at first made by fuch Infects, which wound the tender buds with a long hollow Trunk, and depofit an Egg in the hole with a sharp corroding liquor, which causeth a swelling in the leaf, and so closeth the orifice and within this Tumor the Worm is hatcht and receives its aliment, till it hath eat its way through. Neither need we recurr to an æquivocal production of Vermin in the Phthiriafis and in Herod's Difeafe, who was onhong, eaten of Act.12.23. Worms, or Maggots. Thofe horrible diftempers are always accompanied with putrefying ulcers; and it hath been obferved by the most accurate Lewenhoeck, that Lice and Flies, which Continuar Epifto!. have a most wonderfull inftinct and acutenefs p. 101. of sense to find out convenient places for the hatching and nourishment of their young, do mightily endeavour to lay their Eggs upon Sores; and that one will lay above a hundred Eggs, and may naturally increase to some hundreds of thousands in a quarter of a year: which gives a full and fatisfactory account of the Phenomena of thofe Difeafes. And whereas it is said, Exod. 16. v. 20. That some of the Ifraelites left of the Manna until the morning, and it bred worms and fank; which an Atheist may make an objection, as either against us, or against the truth of the Scriptures: I under

stand