EDINBURGH MAGAZINE, OR LITERARY MISCELLANY, FOR MAY 1800. With a View of PENNYCUICK-HOUSE*, the Seat of Sir George Clerk, Bart. of Pennycuick. S s State A view of this house, but on a small scale, was given in a former Number. THE EDINBURGH MAGAZINE, OR LITERARY MISCELLANY, FOR MAY 1800. HISTORICAL MEMOIR OF THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF SPALLANZANI. Tranflated from an Eloge, delivered by Jean Senebier, keeper of the Library at Ge neva, to the Society of Natural Philofophy and Natural Hiftory of Geneva, Sept. 17, 1799. LAZARUS SPALLANZANI was fee him in 1765 painting his gratitude for his inftructor, to whom he dedicated a Latin differtation at that time, in which he mentions the applaufes that Laura Baffi received at Modena, when the entered the auditory of her pupil, then become profeffor. The taste of Spallanzani for philofophy was not exclufive: he already thought, like all great men, that the ftudy of antiquity and the belles lettres was indifpenfible to give. to ideas that clearness, to expreffions that accuracy, and to reafonings that connexion, without which the finest thoughts become barren. He studied his own language with care; and perfected himself in the Latin tongue, but above all he attached himself to the Greek and the French. Homer, Demofthenes, St Bafil, were his favourite authors. I have as often heard him recite paffages from Homer and Virgil, as from Ariofto and Taffo. Spallanzani applied himself to jurifprudence at the inftance of a father whom he tenderly loved: he was upon the point of receiving the degree of doctor of civil law, when Anthony Vallifneri, profeffor of natural history at Padua, perfuaded him to renounce this vocation, by promiS$ 2 born at Scandiano, in the department of Croftolo (in the Cifalpine Republic), the 10th of January 1729; he was fon of Jean Nicholas Spallanzani, an esteemed jurif-confult; and of Lucia Zugliani; he commenced his ftudies in his own country, and, at the age of fifteen years went to Reggio de Modena in order to continue them. The Jefuits, who in ftructed him in the belles-lettres, and the Dominicans, who heard of his progrefs, were defirous of attaching him to them; but his paffion for extending his knowledge led him to Bologna, where his relation Laura Baffi, that woman juftly celebrated for her genius, her eloquence, and her skill in natural philofophy and the mathematics, was one of the moft illuftrious profeffors of the Inftitute and of Italy. Under the direction of this enlightened guide, he learnt to prefer the study of nature to that of her commentators, and to judge of the value of the commentary by its refemblance to the original: he inftantly availed himself of the wisdom of that lady's counfels, and was not long before he experienced the happy effects of it. How agreeable it is to fing fing to obtain the confent of his father, Spallanzani published, in 1765, Saggio who was fenfibly touched by his fon's devotion to his will, and who thereby left him at liberty to follow his own inclinations. From that moment he gave himself up with more ardour than ever to the study of mathematics, continuing that also of the living and dead languages. Spallanzani was prefently known all over Italy, and his own country was the first to do homage to his talents. The university of Reggio, in 1754, chofe him to be profeffor in logic, metaphyfics, and Greek. He taught there for ten years; and during that period confecrated all the time he could fpare from his leffons to the obfervation of nature. Now and then an accidental difcovery would increase his paffion for natural hiftory, which always augmented by new fucceffes. His obfervations upon the animalculæ of infufions fixed the attention of Haller and of Bonnet; the latter of whom affifted him in his glorious career, and thenceforth diftinguished him as one of the learned interpreters of nature. In 1760 Spallanzani was called to the university of Modena; and although his intereft would have made him accept the advantageous offers of the university of Coimbra, of Parma, and of Cefena; yet his pa triotism and his attachment to his family confined his fervices to his own country. The fame confiderations engaged him to refufe the propofitions made him by the academy of Petersburg fome years after. He remained at Modena till the year 1768, and he faw raised by his care a generation of men conftituting at this time the glory of Italy. Among them may be counted Venturi, profeffor of natural philofophy at Mo den; Belloni bishop of Carpi; Lucchefini, ambaffador of the late king of Pruffia; and the poet Angelo Mazzo of Parma. During his refidence at Modena, di Offervazioni Microfcopiche concernente il Sistema di Needham e Buffon. He therein establishes the animality of what had been called, but not generally affented to, as microscopic animalculæ, by the most ingenious, and at the fame time folid, experi ments; he fent this work to Bonnet, who formed his opinion of the author accordingly, and who lived to fee the accomplishment of the prophecy he drew from it. From that moment, the most intimate acquaintance was formed between them, and it lafted during their lives, of which it conftituted the chief happiness. In the fame year Spallanzani published a differtation truly original: De Lapidibus ab Aqua refilientibus: in that work he proves, by fatisfactory experiments, contrary to the commonly received opinion, that the ducks and drakes (as they are called) are not produ ced by the elafticity of the water, but by the natural effect of the change of direction which the ftone experiences in its movement, after the water has been ftruck by it, and that it has been carried over the bend or hollow of the cup formed by the concuffion. In 1768 he prepared the philofophers for the furprising difcoveries he was about to offer them throughout his life, in publishing his Prodrome di un Opera da Imprimerfi fopra le Riproduzioni Animali. He therein lays down the plan of a work which he was anxious to get up on this important fubject; but this fimple profpectus contains more real knowledge than all the books which had ap peared, because it taught the method that ought to be followed in this dark refearch, and contained many unexpected facts; fuch as the pre-exift ence of tadpoles at the fecundation, in many fpecies of toads and frogs; the reproduction of the head cut off from fnails, which he had already communicated to Bonnet, in 1766, and |