Spallanzani, Lazzaro
späl-läntsä´n
), 1729–99, Italian naturalist. He was professor at the universities of Modena (1763–69) and Pavia (from 1769). Spallanzani studied regeneration, fertilization, and the digestive action of saliva; using heat-sterilized cultures, he performed experiments that disproved J. T. Needham's theory of spontaneous generation.