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Jan 1, 1550
Anaximander (610- 546 BC)
Anaximander is a Greek philosopher who believed everything appeared out of the elemental nature of the Universe. (Wind, fire, earth, water) -
Period: Jan 1, 1550 to
Spontaneous Generation Timeline
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Jan 1, 1560
Aristotle (384-322 BC)
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and scientist who believed that life was created by the idea of pneuma or “vital heat”. -
Jan 1, 1580
Jan Baptist van Helmont (1580-1644)
Jan Baptist van Helmont was a Flemish Chemist who supported the idea of spontaneous generation. He did a couple of experiments proving the theory of spontaneous generation. One of his experiments was based on a willow tree, the growth of the willow tree after 5 years. Helmont also came up with the recipe for creating mice. -
Francesso Redi
On the year of 1688, people still believed that living organisms appear spontaneously and maggots appeared spontaneously in rotten food, however Francesco Redi believed that maggots developed from eggs laid by flies. He tested out his theory by having various flasks, some open and some sealed. The results showed that maggots only appeared in the open flasks. -
John Needham
In 1745, John Needham claimed that spontaneous generation is true. By proving his point, he boiled chicken broth, put into flasks, sealed the flask, but microorganisms still grew in the flask. -
Lazzaro Spallanzani
In 1768, Lazzaro Spallanzani didn’t believe John Needham’s experiment, so he modified Needham’s experiment. he placed chicken broth in flask, sealed the flask, drew off the air, then boiled the broth. No microorganism grew in the result of this experiment. However this experiment only proved that spontaneous generation could not occur without air. -
Charles Cagniard de la Tour and Theodor Schwann
In 1837, Charles Cagniard de la Tour and Theodor Schwann published their discovery. If there’s no sign of yeast, fermentation will never happen if just pure air is introduced into the substance. This explains that airborne microorganisms caused the fermentation and no spontaneous generation. -
Louis Pasteur
In 1859, Louis Pasteur disproved the spontaneous generation theory in a contest sponsored by the French Academy of Sciences. In his experiment he first boiled the meat broth in a flask, then heated the neck of the flask them bent the neck of the flask to the shape of a “s”. This way only pure air could enter the flask but not airborne microorganism. This experiment resulted that no microorganism grew in the flask. After this, the idea of spontaneous generation gradually died out.
