The last

postulate was eventually proven

by Rudolf Ludwig Karl Virchow in 1858.
 Virchow, upon studying how cells
played a role in body diseases at
that time, noticed that the existence
of diseases in the organs and
tissues come from affected cells.
From this, he stated OMNIS CELLULA
E CELLULA, which means that all
cells arise from preexisting cells.
 Itwas believed that this
discovery was initially made by
Robert Remak, a Jewish
scientist in 1855, when he
tried to prove the idea of cell
division by hardening the cell
membrane.
 The cell theory had greatly
disproved the theory of
spontaneous generation, which
states that organisms can come
from nonliving sources.
 The theory of spontaneous
generation was generally
accepted until the 19th century.
 The cell theorys third postulates
directly contradicts the theory of
spontaneous generation.
 Aside from the experiments
conducted by Virchow and
Remak,prior studies were initially
done to test the validity of the
spontaneous generation theory.
 In 1668, Francesco Redi experimented on
fresh meat in jars.One jar with fresh meat was
left open while the other jar with fresh meat
was covered with gauze. Another jar with
fresh meat was` sealed airtight. The open jar
eventually had maggots feeding on the meat,
while there were no maggots on the meat in
the covered jar.However, some maggots were
present on the cloth cover of the jar.
 Thus Redi concluded that
maggots can only come from
something alive, He was one
of the scientist to disprove
the theory of spontaneous
generation.
 In1745,John Needham, also made a
test to check the validity of
spontaneous generation. During that
time, people already believed that
boiling could kill microorganism. In
Needham experiment, he boiled the
chicken broth in a container and then
sealed it.days later, microorganism
still alive grew on the
 Onthe surface of the chicken
broth.He presented this as a
piece of evidence that supported
the theory of spontaneous
generation bec ause there was no
other source of life other than the
broth.
 Lazzaro Spallanzani was not
convinced by the expriment of
Needham. He thought that
microorganism may have entered
the broth from the air between
the time after the broth has
cooled and before the jar was
sealed.
 He set out to do another experiment
to test his hypothesis. In his
experiment, he sealed the flask and
then boiled the chicken broth in
it.After a few days, no microorganism
were obsrved in th flask.He subjected
another flask with chicken broth to
the same condition, except the flask
was not sealed.
 Microorganisms grew in this flask.
He saw his results as proof that
the theory of spontaneous
generation could not be true.
 In 1859, Louis Pasteur also did some
tests to check the truth behind the
theory of spontaneous generation.In
Pasteurs experiment, he put the meal
broth in two separate S-shaped
flasks without a seal and then he
boiled the broth to kill any existing
microbes.He broke the swan neck
from the first S-shaped flask, while
retaining the swan neck in the
other.Dust particles eventually fell
on the broth in the flask,whereas
the dust particles only got
through the bottom bend of the
swan neck in the second flask,
keeping the broth sterile.
 The broth in the first flask quickly
became cloudy, a sign that
microorganisms had entered the
broth. However in the second flask,
only the bottom bend of the swan
neck had darkened, keeping the
broth sterile.Hence, it became clear
to Pasteur that microorganism were
introduced through the dust particles
 And that these microorganaisms
did not arise from the broth itself.
This finally provd that the theory
of spontaneous genration was
flawed.