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1. How Did the Theory of Biogenesis Lead the Way for the Germ Theory of Disease?

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1. How Did the Theory of Biogenesis Lead the Way for the Germ Theory of Disease?
With science there are many branches, one of these branches is Microbiology and within this specific branch theories have been created. It may not be obvious theories are ever evolving and go through changes and previous theories are falsified and new ones emerge. For instance, the theory of biogenesis was first introduced by a man named Rudolph Virchow, who eagerly challenged the current theory of spontaneous generation at the time. Spontaneous generation theory was the thought that some forms of life could actually be spontaneously created out of thin air. An example of spontaneous generation was that flies could develop from manure for no reason other than just because that is how it was. Virchow knew this could not be true and delved deeper and is credited at defending the concept that living cells could only be created from previous cells was more accurate. This concept was later considered to be called the theory of biogenesis, but unfortunately Virchow never created relevant experiments to give proof to this scientific concept.
There are a few different important men who painstaking thought up and experimented with new ideas to help falsify the theory of spontaneous generation, bring about the theory of biogenesis and ultimately cultivate the germ theory of disease. For example, a man by the name of Joseph Lister purposed that too many people where infecting others because the practice of sanitary surgical treatments where not being applied and practiced then. This was surprising because quite a few years before Lister a man named Ignas Semmelweis proposed and actually proved that fevers during childbirth where dramatically reduced when doctors washed their hands. Later on Lister tested a substance known as Carbolic Acid or phenol by placing it on surgical instruments and on patients wounds which later effectively lowered the infections of gangrene in patients. Louis Pasteur was a significant figure confirming the theory of biogenesis theory

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