160 - BUFFON (Georges Louis Leclerc, Count of), 1707–1788.

BUFFON (Georges Louis Leclerc, Count of), 1707–1788. L.A., Montbard, July 4, 1751, 3 pp., in-4, in brown ink, red wax seal bearing coat of arms preserved (some restoration), addressed to his close friend President de Brosses (Charles de Brosses, 1709–1777) (address crossed out but still fairly legible). An important scientific letter in which Buffon clearly sets forth his conception of spontaneous generation and claims authorship of the experiments published by Abbé Needham. The latter had just published his *Nouvelles observations microscopiques* (Paris, 1750), which drew heavily on research conducted with Buffon: “Abbé Needham based his book entirely on my experiments and my observations […] All the facts are true, and I have seen them all—often with him and even before him.” While disavowing the “systematic section” of the work, Buffon then develops his own theory: According to him, certain animals can be born “without a father or mother,” not because inanimate matter can spontaneously generate life, but because there exists in animals and plants an imperishable organic matter, “always alive,” the true principle of life. This is, in a particularly concise and striking epistolary form, the theory of organic molecules that he had developed in the first volumes of his *Natural History* (1749). Buffon refers to the observations made possible by the microscope and informs de Brosses that he is reserving for a future history of insects (which would never see the light of day) several experiments that, in his view, should definitively establish the phenomenon. The letter thus serves as a remarkable account of the debates then raging among naturalists regarding generation and the origin of life, before Spallanzani’s experiments came to call Needham’s conclusions into question. Finally, it provides insight into the very work of *Histoire naturelle* itself, as Buffon announces the upcoming publication of three volumes devoted to quadrupeds, the first of which would ultimately appear in 1753. “I am most grateful to you, my dear President [crossed out], for the kindness with which you received my request regarding Mr. Daubenton […]” Suffering from a lingering cold, he returned to Paris in August and asked “Mr. de Ste Palaye for the writings you are kind enough to share with me […] Abbé Needham based his book solely on my experiments and observations; he states this quite clearly in more than one place, but had he consulted me, he would have omitted the systematic section, which is obscure and poorly organized. All the facts are true, and I have witnessed them all—often with him and even before him—but I believed I should draw from them only what I have stated in my *Natural History*; it is certain that animals are born who have neither father nor mother, but this does not mean that absolutely dead matter can produce the living; on the contrary, there resides in animals and plants a matter that cannot die, and it is this ever-living matter that is the principle of life in both. The ancient axiom “Corruptio &c.” is true, but not to the full extent they ascribed to it; The microscope has revealed the eggs of certain insects that they believed to arise from decay, but at the same time, the microscope has revealed other animals that certainly arise from decay alone, such as the eels in flour, which do not come from eggs since they are viviparous. I am reserving several facts for my history of insects that will remove all doubt from this matter. We will not begin printing the histories of the quadrupeds until November; it will consist of three volumes, which will be published together in April or May. I am providing you with this detail, my dear President [struck through], because it seems to me that you care enough about me to take an interest in it […] "" Accompanied by its former cultural property export certificate from the Ministry of Culture, including the original entry from the Charavay 815 catalog dated May 1996 (No. 44880, containing a dating error).