Spontaneous generation

Spontaneous generation was once believed to be the mechanism by which organisms could originate directly from non-living matter. The process is also known as abiogenesis, from the Greek roots a-, not, bio-, life, and genesis, origin.

Early examples of this theory included the generation of maggots from rotting meat, mice from dirty hay, and lice from sweat. Some of the earliest experiments to form the basis of the law of biogenesis were carried out by Francesco Redi (1668) and Lazarro Spallanzani (1767) from Italy, Rudolph Virchow (1858) from Germany, and the French scientist Louis Pasteur (1860).