How Did Biogenesis Lead the Way for the Germ Theory of Disease

How did the theory of biogenesis lead the way for the germ theory of disease?

Many of us are probably not very aware of the terms biogenesis and germ theory of disease. Most individuals in society actually do know what there to terms are referring to and are probably not even aware of it. Both biogenesis and germ theory of disease will be discussed and how they are related to each other over time.

In 1858 a challenge against spontaneous generation was made by Rudolf Virchow a German by using biogenesis. Biogenesis is when a living cell can be derived due to there being another living cell. However a few years later in 1861 the was a French gentlemen Louis Pasteur preformed different experiments proving that the air can not make microbes but that microorganisms do exist and can contaminate sterile solutions. He did this by conducting two different but similar experiments. Both experiments consist of some flask containing beef broth and boiling the liquid. In the first experiment he boiled the liquid and left some uncovered and some covered. His results were that the flask that was left uncovered had microbes in the broth which causes it to be contaminated. However with the flask that was covered the broth was found to not be contaminated with any microbes. For the second experiment the flask were different the necks of the flask for long and in an S-shape and was open. He did the same thing he boiled the liquid and found that after a few days or more that the broth in the liquid was not contaminated even though the flask was open. What this concluded in the experiment was that air could be present to the broth but those air born microorganisms were not able to pass though the S-shaped neck on the flask.

Microorganisms are related to many different causes of diseases. Even before Pasteur the only way that diseases were treated was by the trail and error method. However scientists were made more aware of the fact that the relationship with...