ter's.

The great services of Hunter were recognized both at home and abroad,
and honors and positions of honor and responsibility were given him. In
1776 he was appointed surgeon-extraordinary to the king; in 1783 he
was elected a member of the Royal Society of Medicine and of the Royal
Academy of Surgery at Paris; in 1786 he became deputy surgeon-general
of the army; and in 1790 he was appointed surgeon-general and
inspector-general of hospitals. All these positions he filled with
credit, and he was actively engaged in his tireless pursuit of knowledge
and in discharging his many duties when in October, 1793, he was
stricken while addressing some colleagues, and fell dead in the arms of
a fellow-physician.

LAZZARO SPALLANZANI

Hunter's great rival among contemporary physiologists was the Italian
Lazzaro Spallanzani (1729-1799), one of the most picturesque figures
in the history of science. He was not educated either as a scientist or
physician, devoting, himself at first to philosophy and the languages,
afterwards studying law, and later taking orders. But he was a keen
observer of nature and of a questioning and investigating mind, so that
he is remembered now chiefly for his discoveries and investigations
in the biological sciences. One important demonstration was his
controversion of the theory of abiogenesis, or "spontaneous generation,"
as propounded by Needham and Buffon. At the time of Needham's
experiments it had long been observed that when animal or vegetable
matter had lain in water for a little time--long enough for it to begin
to undergo decomposition--the water became filled with microscopic
creatures, the "infusoria animalculis." This would tend to show, either
that the water or the animal or vegetable substance contained the
"germs" of these minute organisms, or else that they were generated
spontaneously. It was known that boiling killed these animalcules,
and Needham agreed, therefore, that if he first heated the meat or
vegetables, and also the water containing them, and then placed them in
hermetically scaled jars--if he did this, and still the animalcules
made their appearance, it would be proof-positive that they had been
generated spontaneously. Accordingly he made numerous experiments,
always with the same results--that after a few days the water was found
to swarm with the microscopic creatures. The thing seemed proven beyond
question--providing, of course, that there had been no slips i