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 SPALLANZANI

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SPARTA

erence to an explicit affirmation of the dogma. Im- mediately after the final vote on infallibility, Arch- bishop Spalding addressed a pastoral letter to the clergy and laity of his archdiocese, in which he set the action of the council in the proper light and cleared away numerous misrep- resentations. Shortly after his return to America he spoke at Philadelphia in defence of the temporal power of the pnpc, and on 18 Juno, 1871, he commem- orated with fit ting obser- vance the jubilee of the clrvatiim of Pius IX to the ixqial chair, the last nottible celebration in which he took part. Archbishop Spalding was a fine rei>resentative of the type of men who organized and developed the Church in the

Martix John Spa Archbishop of Bait

United States. To a strong faith he added smcere piety and tender devotion, to scholarship a high degree of administrative ability, and to his zeal for Catholicism a loval interest in the welfare of his coun- try. He enjoyed the esteem of those who were fore- most in Church and Slate, and his death was the occasion of tributes from all classes of his fellow- citizens. His complete works were published at Baltimore in several editions.

J. L. Spaldixg, Thr Life of the Most Ren. M. J. Spalding. D.D. (New York and BaUimorc. 1873): Clarke, Lives of the De- censril Bishops, III (New York, ISSS); Archives of the Cathedral (Baltimore).

Louis O Donovan.

Spallanzani, Lazzaro, a distinguished eight- eenth-century scientist, b. at Scandiano in Modena, Italy, 10 January, 1729; d. at Pavia, 12 February, 1799. His early education was received at the Jesuit College of Reggio. His scientific career began at the University of Bologna under the inspiration of his cousin, Laura Bassi, the famous woman professor of natural philosophy and mathematics. He gave up the study of law" and was ordained a priest; at twenty-five he became professor of logic, metaphysics, and Greek in th(^ University of Reggio. His favourite authors were Homer, Demosthenes, and St. Basil, and his work attracted so much attention that he was offered chairs at Coimbra (Portugal), Parma, and Cesena (Italy). He preferred a chair at Modena (1760) and devoted all his spare time to natural science. His work here brought offers of professor- ships at other Italian universities and from the Acad- emy of St. Petersburg. In 1768, at the personal solici- tation of the Emjiress Maria Theresa, he accepted the chair of natural history in the University of Pavia which was then being reorganized. He greatly enriched the museum here by collections made in journeys in Switzerlaii 1 and along the Mediterranean. After the death of Vallisneri, whose chair at Padua had been the centre of interest in the natural sciences, Spallanzani was iiunted to take it, but the Austrian authorities doubled his salary and gave him a long leave of absence for a scientific expedition in Turkey to retain him. His home-coming was an ovation. He continued to make scientific journeys and special studies of Vesuvius and the volcanoes of Sicily and of the Lipari Islands. His contributions to every phase of physical science are valuable, but it was in biology that his work counted for most; his studies in regeneration arc still classic. He showed experi- mentally that many animals like the lizard and the snail, if accidentally injured, regenerate important parts of their bodies: the land snail regenerates even XIV.— 14

Lazzaro Spallanzani From a Portrait by G. B. Buaan

its head. It was afterwards shown that this docs not contain the brain, but it does contain eyes, mouth, tongue, and teeth, and these are all regenerated. Spallanzani made a long series of interesting experi- ments on artificial fecimdation. His most important work is " Dissertazioni di fisica animale e vegetale" (Modena, 1780). His researches were so much ap- preciated that he was made a member of academies and learned societies in London, Madrid, Stockholm, Upsala, Gottingen, Holland, Lyons, Bologna, Milan, Siena, Turin, Padua, Mantua, Geneva, and Berlin. The University of Paris, then the most important of universities for the sciences, tempted him to come as a professor. His personal character was charming and he made many friends. His biological work brought him into controversies with Needham and Buffon over spon- taneous genera- tion, and with John Hunter over digestion. He came off victo- rious in both con- tests but with such gentle cour- tesy as not to offend, though his opponents in the taste of the time indulged in per- sonalities. His family were de- voted to him, and his sister Mari- anne herself be- came a distin- guished naturalist

while helping him. He was devoutly religious, and as Senebier says, "he perceived with firmness his end approaching and endeavoured by his piety and his faith to edify those who surrounded him."

Senebier in Memoirs on Rrspir.ilio,, (London. 1804); Edin- burgh Medical Journal. 1807; TorRPES in Experiments on the Circulation of the Blood (London, 1801).

James J. Walsh.

Sparta, a celebrated town of the Peloponnesus, mentioned several times under this name or under that of Laceda'mon in the Bible (I Mach., xii, 2-23; xiv, 16-23; xv, 23; II Mach., v, 9). Letters were exchanged between Onias I, high priest of the Jews, and Arius I, King of Sparta, about the years 309 or 300 B. c. (I Mach., xii, 7-8, 19-23; Josephus, "Ant. Jud.", XII, iv, 10). Arius, who sought to maintain the independence of his country against the Syrian successors of .Mexander by creating a diversion against them in Palestine, pretended to have found a writing relative to the Spartans, showing that they themselves and the Jews were two peoples — brothers both descend- ing from Abraham. This assertion has httle founda- tion, although perhaps there had been such a tradi- tion. Later Jonathan wished to renew this friendship with the Spartans and sent them a letter by the delegates Numenius,son of Antiochus, and Antipater, son of Jason, recalling to them that "we therefore at all times without ceasing, both in our festivals, and other days, wherein it is convenient, remember you in the sacrifices that we offer" (I Mach., xii, 2, .5-18; Josephus, "Ant. Jud.", XIII, v, 8). After .lonathan's death the Spartans renewed with his brother Simon the friendship and alliance which they had concluded previously and sent him a letter on this subject by the same Numenius and Antipater who had under- taken the first embassy (I Mach., xiv, 16-23).

Although the relationship of the two peoples may well be called in question, there is no proof that the