STEP BY STEP EVALUATION OF

1 SPONTANEOUS GENERATION THEORY

AND GERM THEORY
BY: GROUP 7
Contents:
o Introduction to the Theory of Spontaneous Generation
o Early Beliefs in Spontaneous Generation
o Accumulation of Evidence Against Spontaneous Generation
o Spallanzani and Tyndall
o Work of Pasteur
o Introduction to Germ Theory
o Work of Different Scientists on Germ Theory
o Introduction and History of Germ Theory
o Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch
 INTRODUCTION TO THE THEORY
OF SPONTANEOUS GENERATION

2
BY: PARNIYA AKBAR ALI
3 INTRODUCTION:

Historically, a specific challenge to the acceptance of ‘pure creationism’ which has

also been one of the major obstacles in its acceptance was the theory of
spontaneous generation.
This belief held that life could and regularly did spring from non-living matter.
Because the ancients did not realize the enormous chemical and biological
complexity of life, they did not believe that spontaneous generation was a
particularly unusual event.
4 INTRODUCTION:

Typically, the idea was that certain forms such as fleas could arise from
inanimate matter such as dust, or that maggots could arise from dead flesh.

Such hypothetical processes are sometimes referred to as abiogenesis, in which

life routinely emerges from non-living matter on a time scale of anything from
minutes to weeks, or perhaps a season or so.
5

o One scientist put forward the belief that mice could be generated spontaneously from
wheat and a sweaty shirt.
o He said that the wheat provided the “nutritive power” and the shirt provided the “active
principle”.
o Active principle = a mysterious life-force that allowed spontaneous generation to occur.
6 ACCEPTANCE:
ARISTOTLE

o Abiogenesis was accepted by Miletus (600 BC), Epicurus (341–270 BC),

Aristotle (348–322 BC), Needham (AD 1713–1781), Buffon (AD 1707– 1788)
etc.
o The doctrine of spontaneous generation was coherently synthesized
by Aristotle, who compiled and expanded the work of prior natural philosophers
and the various ancient explanations of the appearance of organisms; remained
unchallenged for more than 2000 years.
o Belief in spontaneous generation was widespread up until as late as the 1850s
and created a major roadblock to the full acceptance of a need for outside design
and intervention for life to exist.
 7 DISAPPROVAL:
JOHN
TYNDALL

o Today, it is generally accepted to have been decisively dispelled during the 19th
century by the experiments of Louis Pasteur. He expanded upon the
investigations of predecessors (such as Francesco Redi who, in the 17th century,
had performed experiments based on the same principles).
o However, some experimental difficulties were still there and objections from
persons holding the traditional views persisted. Many of these residual objections
were dealt with by the work of John Tyndall, succeeding the work of Pasteur.
8 BIOGENESIS:

o In the years following Louis Pasteur's experiment in 1862, the term "spontaneous

generation" fell into increasing disfavor. Experimentalists used a variety of terms
for the study of the origin of life from non-living materials.
o Heterogenesis (in which one form of life has been supposed to arise from a
different form) was applied to once-living materials such as boiled broths,
and Henry Charlton Bastian proposed the term archebiosis for life originating
from inorganic materials.
o The two were lumped together as "spontaneous generation", but disliking the term
as sounding too random, Bastian proposed biogenesis meaning as life originating
from other life.
 EARLY BELIEFS IN
SPONTANEOUS
GENERATION
BY: HASSAN GUL
9
10
EARLY BELIEFS:
o For centuries, people accepted spontaneous generation as the explanation for
sudden appearance of some organisms.
o People based their beliefs on their interpretation of what they saw going on
in the world around them without testing their ideas.
o They didn’t use the scientific method to arrive at answers to their question.
o Their conclusion were based on untested observations.
o For example it was believed that maggots arose from the meat, mice from
the grain, and beetles from the dung.
 WHERE DO FROGS COME FROM?
11

Observation:
Every year in the spring, the Nile
River flooded areas of the Egypt
along the river, leaving behind
nutrient-rich mud that enabled the
people to grow that year’s crop of
food. However, along with the
muddy soil large numbers of frogs
appeared that were not around in
drier time. Untested Conclusion:
It was perfectly obvious to them that the muddy
soil was giving rise to the frogs.
 WHERE DO MICE COME FROM?
12

Observation:
In many parts of Europe, medieval farmers stored
grain in wooden buildings. Buildings had
thatched roofs (like Shakespeare’s house). At that
time, it was not uncommon for it to start leaking.
This could lead to spoiled or moldy grains, and of
course there were lots of mice around.

Untested Conclusion:
It was obvious to them that the mice came from
the moldy grains.
 WHERE DO FLIES COME FROM?
13

Observation:
Since there were no refrigerators, the
mandatory, daily trip to the butcher
shop, especially in summer, meat
battling the flies around the carcasses.
Typically, carcasses were “hung by
their heels” and customers selected
which chunk the butcher would carve
off for them. Untested Conclusion:
Obviously, the rotten meat that had been
hanging in the sun all day was the source
of the flies.
 EARLY BELIEFS:
14
One of the oldest recorded explanations for the non-supernatural origin of living thing
was the theory of spontaneous generation. Many people once thought that;
“Plants and animals . . . [arose] . . . from mud in the bottom of a pool or from various
other materials, rather than through reproductive processes of parent organisms or direct
creation by a creator.”

Anaximander (611–547 BC)

i. He taught that after fish were spontaneously generated, ‘their
descendants left the water and reached dry land’ to later evolve into
reptiles and mammals
ii. He concluded that the first animals were generated in water surrounded by
a protective husk or shell. These animals later migrated to dry land,
developed their shells and adapted themselves to their new circumstances.
iii. Also taught that ‘man must derive from other animals, because his own
period of immaturity is too long and too frail’.
15

Most religious and scientific authorities, many up to the 1850s, also

supported the spontaneous generation doctrine.

Maayen states,
“The exact observations which have been made, prove that nature is still
able to create imperfect animals, as well as the lower plants, without seeds
or eggs” [in other words, by spontaneous generation]. Only organic
matter, water, and air, the essential conditions of living beings, are
necessary, with sufficient heat, to produce animal forms.
 ACCUMULATION OF EVIDENCE
AGAINST SPONTANEOUS
GENERATION
FRANCISCO REDI’S EXPERIMENT
16

BY: MUHAMMAD IBRAHIM

 Redi’s Experiment:
1668 -- Francisco Redi (Italian Physician )-- attempted to disprove the theory of
Spontaneous Generation.
i. One of the first scientist who seriously question the spontaneous generation of
living organisms.
ii. “The flesh of dead animals cannot engender worms unless the eggs of the
living being deposited there in”.
iii. Put dead snakes, eels, and veal in large wide mouthed vessels. Sealed one set
with wax and left the other set open to air.
17 iv. Decaying meat was filled with maggots, sealed meat had no maggots.
v. Wax sealed vessels failed to produce maggots because flies were unable to
reach the meat.
 1668 -- Francisco Redi (Italian Physician )-- Attempted to
18 Disprove the Theory of Spontaneous Generation.
 Redi’s Critics Said:
19
i. You have too many variables.
ii. There is a lack of access and a lack of air.
iii. We ALL know that everything needs air.
iv. Of course no flies grew!
v. You haven’t proven anything.

Experiment After Criticism:

i. Took four jars having flesh inside.

ii. Covered all jars with netting to allow air to enter the jars.
iii. Observed after few days.
iv. Maggots were not appeared inside jars but appeared on net.
v. Shows that flies laid eggs on top of mesh no maggots in
meat.
 Redi part 2 – Answer to
20
Critics:

Flies laid eggs on top of mesh,

no maggots in meat.
21 Redi’s Conclusions:

i. “All living beings come from seeds of the plants or animals

themselves”.
ii. However, if someone were to demonstrate even one
exception to this hypothesis, then Redi’s hypothesis would be
rejected.
SPALLANZANI & TYNDALL

22

AMEENA TUL RASOOL

 Lazzaro Spallanzani:

Lazzaro Spallanzani was an Italian biologist who made important contributions to

spontaneous generation.
Spallanzani researched in 1768 the theory of the spontaneous generation of microbes.
23 SPALLANZANI’S EXPERIMENT BASIS:
In 1745, John Needham, an English Scientist, thought that he had found the definite way to
prove Spontaneous generation. A commonly known fact was that boiling liquids would kill
any microorganisms. So, Needham wanted to test and see if microorganisms would still
appear after boiling a liquid. He boiled the chicken broth, put it into a flask and waited. Soon
enough, microorganisms grew. Because of this, people started to believe in Spontaneous
Generation even more.
 24
EXPERIMENTS
i. Needham’s Hypothesis: Spontaneous generation.
ii. Spallazani’s Hypothesis: Microbes come from the air. Boiling will kill them.
When Spallanzani heard of Needham experiment, he did not believe it. Spallanzani
proposed that the microorganisms could have entered the flask after it was boiled and before it
was sealed.
PROCESS

25 RESULT
Spallanzani disproved Spontaneous generation and concluded that the
flask which was not sealed, microorganisms were able to get in after the
water cooled down and the flask which was sealed with cork and boiled,
no microorganisms were able to enter.
 JOHN TYNDALL

John Tyndall (1820 – 1893), prominent physicist, discoverer of endospores and a

26
method used to destroy them, called Tyndallization.
John Tyndall explained the conflicting data of Pasteur’s experiment that some broths
had endospores which germinated after boiling.
 Pasteur used broths made with sugar and yeast that do not have endospores.
 Tyndall used broths made with Hay that frequently contain endospores.
 ENDOSPORES

27
i. Some bacteria are able to produce tough, dormant structures called endospores which allow
them to survive when stressed.
ii. Tyndall found that it took either prolonged or intermittent heating to destroy the resistant heat-
stable form.
 TYNDALLIZATION:
Tyndall demonstrated that alternate process of heating &
cooling if repeated five times, can kill all the endospores.
This is known as Sterilization process or Tyndallization.

28
 WORK OF PASTEUR

BY: ABID-UL-HAQ
29
30 Pasteur Disproved Spontaneous Generation:
i. Louis Pasteur performed an experiment in 1859.
ii. He boiled a meat broth in a flask  bent the necks of the flasks into S shapes, and then
boiled the broth to kill any existing microbes.
iii. Pasteur broke off the necks from the flasks in Experiment 1, exposing the nutrient broth
within them to air from above. The flasks in Experiment 2 were left alone.
iv. Dust particles from the air fell into the broken flasks of Experiment 1. In Experiment 2,
dust particles remained near the tip of the necks, but could not travel against gravity into
the flasks, keeping the nutrient broth sterile.
v. The broth in the broken flasks quickly became cloudy–a sign that it teemed with
microbial life. However, the broth in the unbroken flasks remained clear. Without the
introduction of dust–on which microbes can travel–no life arose.
vi. Thus, the Louis Pasteur experiment refuted the notion of spontaneous generation.
31
32 Germ theory of diseases:
i. Louis Pasteur Conducted experiment on the relationship between germ and
disease in between 1860 and 1864. 
ii. He discovered the pathology of the puerperal fever and the pyogenic vibrio in the
blood, suggested using boric acid to kill these microorganisms before and after
confinement.
iii. Fermentation and the growth of microorganisms in nutrient broths did not
proceed by spontaneous generation.
iv. Pasteur discovered that another serious disease of silkworms, pébrine, was caused
by a small microscopic organism now known as Nosema bombycis (1870).
v.  Pasteur saved France's silk industry by developing a method to screen silkworms
eggs for those that were not infected, a method that is still used today to control
this and other silkworm diseases.
 33 Pasteurization:
i. Pasteurization or  is a process that kills microbes (mainly bacteria)
in food and drink, such as milk, juice, canned food, and others.
ii. In 1864 Pasteur discovered that heating beer and wine was enough to kill
most of the bacteria that caused spoilage, preventing these beverages from
turning sour.
iii. Today, pasteurization is used widely in the dairy industry and other food
processing industries to achieve food preservation and food safety.
iv. Louis Pasteur’s pasteurization experiment illustrates the fact that the spoilage
of liquid was caused by particles in the air rather than the air itself. These
experiments are important pieces of evidence supporting the idea of Germ
Theory of Disease. Unlike sterilization, pasteurization is not intended to kill
all microorganisms in the food Instead it used to reduce the number of viable
pathogens.
34 Vaccination:

1) Chicken Cholera
i.  Pasteur used a weakened culture of the bacteria to inoculate chickens. The
chickens survived and became immune to it.
2) Anthrax
ii. Pasteur cultivated bacteria from the blood of animals infected with anthrax.
iii. Inoculated animals with the bacteria, anthrax occurred, proving that the bacteria
was the cause of the disease.
iv. He injected one group of animals with an anthrax vaccine he had developed,
and he did not vaccinate his second, control group.
v. After a few weeks, both groups were injected with live anthrax bacteria, and all
the vaccinated animals survived.
35 Vaccination:

3) Rabies
i. Pasteur was able to vaccinate living animals against rabies. He had only used
the vaccine successfully on animals only.
ii. Once he vaccinated a dying boy so he became cured with it.
 HISTORY OF GERM THEORY OF
DISEASE

36
BY: IHSAN ULLAH HASEEN
37
Background:

o Microbes were discovered in the late 1600’s.

o But the idea that these tiny organisms could cause disease did not develop until
1860’s, about 150 years ago.
38
Anton Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723):
o Made microscopes that magnified 200x.
o Described microbes in water in 1673 as “moving beasties like fine grains of
sand”.
o He was not a good artists. He wrote precise descriptions but hired someone
else to draw.

Shapes of microbes
39
Schleiden, Schwann, Siebold:
o Schleiden (1804-1881): Botanist who used microscopes to study plants.
Suggested that all plants are made of cells.
o Schwann (1810-1882): Biologist suggested animals are also made of cells.
o Siebold (1804-1885): Biologist suggested microbes are made of individual
cells.

A: Plant cells B: Animal cells

40
Rudolph Virchow (1821-1902):

o Polish doctor suggested (1850) that all cells reproduce, divide, and grow.
o He suggested that diseases are caused by cells that don’t work properly in people.
o This is only true for cancer and hereditary diseases.
41 Nightingale, Lister, Halsted:
o Florence Nightingale: English nurse (1860) kept hospitals clean. Fewer soldiers
died.
o Joseph Lister: Scottish surgeon (1867) used antiseptic to clean hands, aprons, and
instruments. Patient’s death decreased.
o William Halsted: American surgeon (1890) sterilized rubber gloves (too hot for
hands) for surgery.

Rubber gloves
 INTRODUCTION TO
THE GERM THEORY

42 BY: AKHTAR MUHAMMAD

43 The Germ Theory:

i. The germ theory states that many disease are caused by the growth and
reproduction of specific microorganisms within a host body.
ii. The germ theory gained popular acceptance through the work of many
scientists even before Pasteur through 19th centuries.
44 Proof of Germ Theory:
i. The definitive proof of the germ theory of disease came from the German
Robert Koch.
ii. In 1876 Robert Koch showed the relation between the cattle disease
anthrax and a bacillus which we now know a bacillus anthraces.
iii. In his experiment, Koch infected healthy mice with blood from diseased
cattle and sheep and noted that the symptoms of the disease appeared in
mice, and that rod shaped bacteria could be isolated from their blood.
These could be grown in culture, where they multiply and produced
spores .Injection of healthy mice with these spores led them too to
develop anthrax and once again the bacteria were isolated from their
blood. These results led Koch to formalize the criteria necessary to prove
a causal relationship between a specific disease condition and a particular
microorganism.
45 Koch’s Postulates:
Robert Koch’s research provides a framework for the study of
any infectious disease. In 1881 Koch developed four postulates
to identify the particular causative agent for an infectious disease.
They are summarized as:
i. The microorganism must be present in every instance of the
disease and absent from healthy individuals.
ii. The microorganism must be capable of being isolated and
grown in pure culture.
iii. When the microorganism is inoculated into a healthy host,
the same disease condition must result.
iv. The same organism must be re-isolated from the
experimentally infected host.
46
47
Miasma Theory:

It is one of the earliest theories of how disease is transmitted. The

miasma theory held that disease such as Cholera, Anthrax,
Tuberculosis were caused by miasma which is a noxious form of bad
air.
 WORK OF DIFFERENT SCIENTISTS
ON GERM THEORY
I.Agostino Bassi
II.Ignaz Semmelweis
III.
Gideon Mantell
48 IV.
John Snow
BY:ABDULLAH KHATTAK
49 Agostino Bassi:

The Italian scientist Agostino Bassi was the first person to prove that the disease
was caused by microorganisms. He conducted a series of experiments (1808-
1813). Demonstrated that "vegetable parasite“ caused a disease in silkworms
known as calcinaccio. This disease was devastating the French silk industry at
the time. The "vegetable parasite" is now known to be a fungus pathogenic to
insects called Beauveria bassiana .
50 Ignaz Semmelweis:

i. Semmelweis made the connection between puerperal fever and

examinations of delivering women by doctors.
o Physicians had usually come directly from autopsies. 
o Stated that puerperal fever was a transmittable disease and that matter
came from autopsies.
ii. Semmelweis made doctors wash their hands with chlorinated lime water
before examining pregnant women.
o Thereby reducing the mortality rate from 18% to 2.2% at his hospital.
51 John Snow:
i. He first published his theory in an 1849 Essay on the Mode of Communication
of Cholera.
ii. He correctly suggested that the fecal-oral route was the mode of
communication, and that the disease replicated itself in the lower intestines.
iii.  Proposed in his 1855 edition of the work that the structure of cholera was that
of a cell.
iv. Snow's 1849 work recommended that water be “filtered and boiled before it is
used”.
v. Asked the city of London to dismantle the pump.
vi. Played key role in setting standards for good public hygiene and preventing
spread of infectious disease.
52 Gideon Mantell:

Famous for discovering dinosaur’s fossils. Spent

time with his microscope, and formed a theory in
his Thoughts On Animalcules (1850) that perhaps
“many of the most serious disease which adversely
affects humanity, are produced by particular states of
invisible animalcular life”.
53

LOUIS PASTEUR AND

ROBERT KOCH

BY: TOOBA KHAN

LOUIS PASTEUR:
o Born on December 27, 1822 in Dole, France, Louis Pasteur discovered that
microbes were responsible for souring alcohol.
o Why was the work of Louis Pasteur important in the history of medicine?
o Pasteur showed that airborne microbes were the cause of disease.
o Louis Pasteur designed an experiment to test whether sterile nutrient broth
could spontaneously generate microbial life. To do this, he set up two
54 experiments. In both, Pasteur added nutrient broth to flasks, bent the necks
of the flasks into S shapes, and then boiled the broth to kill any existing
microbes.
55
56
Germ Theory of Disease:

The discovery of the germ theory of disease remains the pinnacle of Louis
Pasteur's scientific career. With his use of microbiology for medicine and
surgery he proved that many diseases were caused by the presence of foreign
microorganisms. In that connection, he studied diseases such as
staphylococcus, streptococcus and pneumococcus.
He discovered the process of PASTEURIZATION.
The use of pasteurization to kill pathogenic bacteria has helped reduce the
transmission of diseases, such as typhoid fever, tuberculosis, scarlet fever,
polio, and dysentery.
57
Pasteurization is the process of heat processing a liquid or
food to kill pathogenic bacteria to make the food safe to eat.
58

Building on Pasteur's work on germ theory, Koch used experiments to prove

that the bacterium Bacillus anthracis was the cause of anthrax - the bacterium
could be observed in the tissue of anthrax victims. He extracted this bacterium
from a sheep which had died of anthrax, grew it and injected a mouse with it.
He discovered the formation of spores in anthrax bacteria, which could remain
dormant under specific conditions.
59
Cont .
o He discovered the anthrax disease cycle (1876), Pollender, Rayer
and Davaine had already discovered the anthrax bacillus, but never
proved scientifically that this was the cause of the disease. Koch set
to work, inoculating mice (by slivers of wood), with anthrax bacilli
taken from the spleens of farm animals that had died of anthrax.
o He presented his discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the
bacterium that causes tuberculosis (TB), in 1882. If one only
considers the productive middle-age groups, tuberculosis carries
away one-third, and often more.
60 Koch's postulates are as follows:
i. The bacteria must be present in every case of the disease.
ii. The bacteria must be isolated from the host with the disease and grown in pure culture.
iii. The specific disease must be reproduced when a pure culture of the bacteria is
inoculated into a healthy susceptible host.
iv. The bacteria must be recoverable from the experimentally infected host.
v. The particular bacteria (such as the one that causes leprosy) cannot be "grown in pure
culture" in the laboratory.
vi. There is no animal model of infection with that particular bacteria.
vii. A harmless bacteria may cause disease if:
1. It has acquired extra virulence factors making it pathogenic.
2. It gains access to deep tissues via trauma, surgery, an IV line, etc.
3. It infects an immunocompromised patient.
4. Not all people infected by a bacteria may develop disease-subclinical infection is
usually more common than clinically obvious infection.
61
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