NEEDHAM, JOHN TURBERVILLE

(b. Sept. 10, 1713, Londond. Dec. 30, 1781, Brussels), English naturalist and Roman Catholic divine, first clergyman of his faith to become a member of the Royal Society of London (1768). He was ordained in 1738 but spent much of his time as a teacher and tutor. His reading about animalcules (microscopic organisms) aroused an interest in natural science, and from 1746 to 1749 he studied in that field in London and Paris. He became a staunch advocate of the theories of spontaneous generation (life from inorganic matter) and vitalism (doctrine holding that life processes cannot be explained by the laws of chemistry and physics). In 1750 he presented a paper explaining the theory of spontaneous generation and attempting to offer scientific evidence supporting the theory. In 1767 he retired to the English seminary at Paris to pursue his scientific experiments. He also served as the director of the Imperial Academy in Brussels until 1780.