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Have you ever looked at those insects that Andrew Crosse was supposed to have created? Do you think they resemble any real insects?
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Xanatic said:Aha, also the way he claims they grew also seems odd. Instead of being born as babies and growing bigger, they pretty much started at the head and grow a body from there.
Andrew Crosse: Abiogenesis of Acari
Introduction:
In 1837, Andrew Crosse reported to the London electrical Society concerning the accidental spontaneous generation of life in the form of Acurus genus insects while he was conducting experiments on the formation of artificial crystals by means of prolonged exposure to weak electric current. Throughout numerous strict experiments under a wide variety of conditions utterly inimical to life as we know it, the insects continued to manifest. The great Michael Faraday also reported to the Royal Institute that he had replicated the experiment. Soon afterwards, all notice of this phenomenon ceased to be reported, and the matter has not been resolved since then.
almond13 said:Andrew Crosse: Abiogenesis of Acari
Introduction:
In 1837, Andrew Crosse reported to the London electrical Society concerning the accidental spontaneous generation of life in the form of Acurus genus insects while he was conducting experiments on the formation of artificial crystals by means of prolonged exposure to weak electric current. Throughout numerous strict experiments under a wide variety of conditions utterly inimical to life as we know it, the insects continued to manifest. The great Michael Faraday also reported to the Royal Institute that he had replicated the experiment. Soon afterwards, all notice of this phenomenon ceased to be reported, and the matter has not been resolved since then. http://www.rexresearch.com/crosse/crosse.htm
jefflovestone
I collect 'Frankensteinia' and can recommend The Man Who Was Frankenstein by Peter Hanning. Basically, a great (the only?) biography of Crosse and his work with some related short stories at the back.
It's a great little book, but am unsure whether it's still in print. I've been fascinated by him for a long time.
a collosal untapped energy resource
They were dust mites and his science was condemned by all and sundry. He never even claimed to have "created" them. ...
His lab conditions were not sterile and dust mites will appear anywhere really.
This was in fortean a while back.
thanks for that. Didnt see the FT issue. ...
THE LICE FANTASTIC
by Sarah Bakewell
FT 139 Oct 2000
Andrew Crosse (1784-1855) (left) is often portrayed as the archetypal “mad scientist” on whom Victor Frankenstein was modelled, despite the fact that his supposed creation of life did not occur until almost two decades after Frankenstein was written. He was, indeed, something of a romantic figure, living in isolation in a country house with its own private laboratory, into which ran wires attached to lightning conductors, and out of which came the regular snap, crackle and pop of electrical experimentation. Yet in truth, Crosse scrupulously struggled to adhere to proper scientific method, and to be cautious in drawing conclusions. The fact that his careful “discoveries” turned out to be the stuff of bizarre fantasy is attributable less to undisciplined thinking than to the perils of the DIY laboratory.
What happened was this. Having experimented on electrical phenomena for years, Crosse one day in 1836 looked into a dish of chemicals through which he had been passing an electrical current in an attempt to influence crystal formation. Instead of crystals, he saw in the dish “a perfect insect, standing erect on a few bristles which formed its tail” ... .It resembled “a microscopic porcupine.”Other insects joined it, and two days later the creatures moved their legs, then detached themselves and “moved about at pleasure” in the dish. “I must say I was not a little astonished,” remarked Crosse. A hundred or more of the creatures appeared over the next few weeks. “As they successively burst into life, the whole table on which the apparatus stood was at last covered with similar insects, which hid themselves wherever they could find a shelter. [..] They were plainly perceptible to the naked eye as they nimbly crawled from one spot to another.” Crosse identified them as the genus Acarus, but was not sure whether they were a known species or a new one.
At first he mentioned the event only to a handful of people, but word got around, and before long a local newspaper caught on to the story. Under the headline “Extraordinary Experiment,” its editor sensationalised the discovery, naming the creature Acarus galvanicus. The tale “flew over England, and indeed Europe, satisfying at once the credulity of those who love the marvellous, and raising up a host of bitter and equally unreasoning assailants.” The idea of electrically-generated insects upset many people on religious grounds, for Crosse appeared to be trying to usurp God’s role of Creator, and the reaction to him was extreme. He received threats of violence; local agriculturalists blamed him for a blight on the wheat crop, and an exorcism was carried out on nearby hills.
Most writers now agree that, in reality, the insects were probably either dust- or cheese-mites which had somehow got into the liquid. Crosse tried to be careful, but he was not working under controlled conditions, and contamination can happen very easily.
The tale of Andrew Crosse quickly became the stuff of melodramatic horror yarns. Indeed, it is more true to say that Frankenstein influenced the public response to Crosse’s insects than to say that Crosse influenced Frankenstein. A story called The Electric Vampire depicted the Acarus as an enormous, hideous spider, with owl-like, unblinking eyes. “It vindicates Crosse absolutely,” says the doctor who created it. “Don’t you think it is superb?” The creature lives by sucking the blood from mice, but then graduates to human victims, beginning – of course – with the doctor himself. In Death of a Professor by Michael Hervey (“If you’re nervy don’t read Hervey!” was his catchphrase), the tiny Acari consume their victim’s bones from inside the body. This time their progenitor is discovered as an empty, boneless bag of skin on the floor – and the Acari are nowhere to be seen, having escaped into the world.