N. 70 - Test of spontaneous generation

The history For many centuries many people believed in the concept of spontaneous generation, the creation of life from organic matter. Spontaneous generation is the hypothesis that some vital force contained in or given to organic matter can create living organisms from inanimate objects. Spontaneous generation was a widely held belief throughout the middle ages and into the latter half of the 19th century. The Italian Francesco Redi disproved spontaneous generation for large organisms by showing that maggots arose from meat only when ies laid eggs in the meat.