John Turberville Needham
John Turberville Needham, 1713-1781, English scientist and
Catholic priest.
Needham's Observations upon the Generation, Composition, and
Decomposition of Animal and Vegetable Substances (1748) offered what he
considered to be proof of spontaneous generation. His claim that
sealed flasks of broth produced animalcules even after the broth
had been boiled suggested the microbes had developed from
inanimate matter, although his experimental techniques were
apparently faulty. Three years after this publication, Maupertuis challenged his findings in his
Système de la nature.
