“I was walking in Monsieur Azaïs's garden. He pointed out to me a rather considerable heap of decomposed vegetable matter, under which he had placed a small vessel filled with distilled water, and in which he thought small animals would be created whole, by the action of heat alone upon the liquid's elements. I did not learn the results of the experiment, which was to last, I think, for a year; but at any rate I strongly doubt that the ingenious author obtained the result he expected.”

Georges Cuvier, 1833