Experimental toxicology In 1664 Redi wrote his first monumental work
Osservazioni intorno alle vipere (
Observations on Vipers) to his friend Lorenzo Magalotti, secretary of the
Accademia del Cimento. In this he began to break the prevailing scientific myths (which he called "unmasking of the untruths") such as
vipers drink wine and shatter glasses, their
venom is poisonous if swallowed, the head of the dead viper is an
antidote, the viper's venom is produced from the
gallbladder, and so on. He explained rather how snake venom is unrelated to the snake’s bite, an idea contrary to popular belief. He performed a series of experiments on the effects of snakebites and demonstrated that venom was poisonous only when it enters the
bloodstream via a bite, and that the
fang contains venom in the form of yellow fluid. He even showed that by applying a tight
ligature before the wound, the passage of venom into the
heart could be prevented. This work marked the beginning of experimental
toxinology/
toxicology.
Entomology and spontaneous generation Redi is best known for his series of
experiments, published in 1668 as ''Esperienze intorno alla generazione degl'insetti
(Experiments on the Generation of Insects''), which is regarded as his masterpiece and a milestone in the history of modern science. The book is one of the first steps in refuting "
spontaneous generation"—a theory also known as Aristotelian
abiogenesis. At the time, the prevailing wisdom was that
maggots arose spontaneously from rotting meat. Redi continued his experiments by capturing the maggots and waiting for them to metamorphose, which they did, becoming flies. Also, when dead flies or maggots were put in sealed jars with dead animals or veal, no maggots appeared, but when the same thing was done with living flies, maggots did. His interpretations were always based on biblical passages, such as his famous adage:
omne vivum ex vivo ("All life comes from life").
Parasitology Redi was the first to describe
ectoparasites in his ''Esperienze intorno alla generazione degl'insetti
. His notable illustrations in the book are those relevant to ticks, including deer ticks and tiger ticks; it also contains the first depiction of the larva of Cephenemyiinae, the nasal flies of deer, as well as the sheep liver fluke (Fasciola hepatica). His next treatise in 1684 titled Osservazioni intorno agli animali viventi che si trovano negli animali viventi
(Observations on Living Animals, that are in Living Animals
) recorded the descriptions and the illustrations of more than 100 parasites. In it, he also differentiates the earthworm (generally regarded as a helminth) and Ascaris lumbricoides'', the human roundworm. An important innovation from the book is his experiments in
chemotherapy in which he employed the "
control"', the basis of
experimental design in modern biological research. He described some 180 species of parasites. Perhaps, his most significant observation was that parasites produce eggs and develop from them, which contradicted the prevailing opinion that they are produced spontaneously. ==Literary career==