Lazzaro Spallanzani

By EmilianoVidania

  • Was born January 12, 1729 in Scandiano, Italy

  • He received is Ph.D. in philosophy

  • Became professor of logic, metaphysics and Greek

  • He was ordained as a priest

  • He was moved to Modena

  • He accepted the invitation of Maria Theresa to the chair of natural history in the University of Pavia

  • Spallanzani was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society

  • Spallanzani researched in 1768 the theory of the spontaneous generation of microbes.

    Spallanzani's experiment showed that it is not an inherent feature of matter, and that it can be destroyed by an hour of boiling.

  • Was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

  • Dissertationi di fisica animale e vegetale

    Here he first interpreted the process of digestion, which he proved to be no mere mechanical process of trituration – that is, of grinding up the food – but one of actual chemical solution, taking place primarily in the stomach, by the action of the gastric juice.

  • Fertilization in animals

  • He died from bladder cancer