SPONTANEOUS GENERATION THEORY

Also known as ABIOGENESIS which means that life came from non–living matter. this
concept has been used around 3.5 billion years ago.

The Greek philosopher Aristotle was one of the earliest recorded scholars to articulate the
theory of spontaneous generation, he synthesized the hypothesis which stated that life can arise
from nonliving matter. This idea had been accepted for over 2,000 years.

One example of this theory back then is that maggots came from raw meat if you put the
meat outside. That is one of the beliefs of the people back then. One example also is that mice
came from the hays on our farms.

This concept had been around for a long period of time, from ancient Romans, through
the middle ages, and until the nineteenth century. But in the 17 th century, different scientists have
come up with different experiments to prove or disprove this theory.

There are some scientists who supported this theory but there are also some who
disapproved of this theory.

FRANCESCO REDI

Francesco Redi was born on February 28, 1626, in Arezzo, Italy, and died on March 1, 1697, in
Pisa, Italy. He is an Italian scientist, physician, and poet.

In 1668, Francesco Redi disproved the spontaneous generation theory. To test the hypothesis of
Aristotle, he put meat into three separate jars. The first jar was left open, the second jar was
sealed, and the third jar was covered with gauze.

On the first jar, he observed that there was a presence of flies and soon maggots emerged. So, he
said that maggots don’t emerge from the meat, they were laid by the flies. But other people don’t
believe in him.

On the second jar, there is no presence of flies hence there was no also presence of maggots. This
showed that maggots don’t emerge from meat and that it was laid by the flies. But still, people
don’t believe him. They said that the jar is sealed which blocks the air into the jar, thus
preventing the maggots from emerging.

Lastly, the third jar was covered with fine gauze which let the air into the jar and prevented flies
from going in. As a result, maggots emerged in the gauze and not in the meat.

With this experiment, he derived the conclusion that maggots only appear when flies come in
contact with meat and that life don’t arise from non-living matter.
JOHN NEEDHAM

John Needham, in full John Tuberville Needham, (born September 10, 1713, London, England—
died December 30, 1781, Brussels, Belgium), English naturalist and Roman Catholic divine, the
first clergyman of his faith to become a fellow of the Royal Society of London (1768).

Biologist John Needham was a proponent of spontaneous generation, but his research ultimately
provided support to the development of cell theory. From his research, Needham concluded that
microorganisms don't actually come from eggs, he believed that his research supported the
theory of spontaneous generation. In 1745, John Needham briefly boiled a broth, which
contained both plant and animal matter. He believed that on this brief period of boiling, it would
kill any microorganisms living in the broth. And After sealing the broth mixture in a flask, he let
it sit for three days. After this period, the broth was cloudy and Needham used a microscope to
observe microbes present in the mixture. Needham then concluded that these tiny organisms had
spontaneously generated from the non-living matter of the broth. But there are some scientist
who disproved or didn’t agreed on his research, and one of them is Lazaro Spallanzani who later
on conducted the same experiment. And according to Spallanzani’s results, he suggested that the
theory is not true because there were no microorganisms that grew in the broth with a closed
flask while on the other hand, the one that has an open flask or exposed to the air had a
microorganism build-up. But some people still believed that Needham’s experiment is true. But
because of Spallanzani’s experiment, there is this scientist who used his research and proved that
the spontaneous generation theory is false, this scientist is Louis Pasteur, which will be discussed
by the 2nd group during the golden age.