Lazzaro Spallanzani

Lazzaro Spallanzani was an Italian priest and biologist, born in Scandiano in 1729, who became one of the leading experimental physiologists of the eighteenth century. He studied at Bologna, where his kinswoman Laura Bassi encouraged his turn to natural philosophy, taught at Reggio and Modena, and in 1768 took the chair of natural history at the University of Pavia and became director of its museum. His experiments on biogenesis weakened belief in spontaneous generation, his work on fertilisation demonstrated the roles of ova and spermatozoa, including early in vitro fertilisation, and he also studied echolocation in bats. His main findings were gathered in a 1785 book on the generation of animals and plants. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1768 and died in 1799.