<P> Belief in spontaneous generation of certain forms of life from non-living matter goes back to Aristotle and ancient Greek philosophy and continued to have support in Western scholarship until the 19th century . This belief was paired with a belief in heterogenesis , i.e. , that one form of life derived from a different form ( e.g. , bees from flowers ) . Classical notions of spontaneous generation held that certain complex , living organisms are generated by decaying organic substances . According to Aristotle , it was a readily observable truth that aphids arise from the dew that falls on plants , flies from putrid matter , mice from dirty hay , crocodiles from rotting logs at the bottom of bodies of water , and so on . In the 17th century , people began to question such assumptions . In 1646 , Sir Thomas Browne published his Pseudodoxia Epidemica ( subtitled Enquiries into Very many Received Tenets , and commonly Presumed Truths ) , which was an attack on false beliefs and `` vulgar errors . '' His contemporary , Alexander Ross , erroneously refuted him , stating : `` To question this ( Ed. : i.e. , spontaneous generation ) , is to question Reason , Sense , and Experience : If he doubts of this , let him go to Ægypt , and there he will finde the fields swarming with mice begot of the mud of Nylus , to the great calamity of the Inhabitants . '' </P>
<P> Belief in spontaneous generation of certain forms of life from non-living matter goes back to Aristotle and ancient Greek philosophy and continued to have support in Western scholarship until the 19th century . This belief was paired with a belief in heterogenesis , i.e. , that one form of life derived from a different form ( e.g. , bees from flowers ) . Classical notions of spontaneous generation held that certain complex , living organisms are generated by decaying organic substances . According to Aristotle , it was a readily observable truth that aphids arise from the dew that falls on plants , flies from putrid matter , mice from dirty hay , crocodiles from rotting logs at the bottom of bodies of water , and so on . In the 17th century , people began to question such assumptions . In 1646 , Sir Thomas Browne published his Pseudodoxia Epidemica ( subtitled Enquiries into Very many Received Tenets , and commonly Presumed Truths ) , which was an attack on false beliefs and `` vulgar errors . '' His contemporary , Alexander Ross , erroneously refuted him , stating : `` To question this ( Ed. : i.e. , spontaneous generation ) , is to question Reason , Sense , and Experience : If he doubts of this , let him go to Ægypt , and there he will finde the fields swarming with mice begot of the mud of Nylus , to the great calamity of the Inhabitants . '' </P>
who introduced the earliest belief that life was spontaneously generated from nonliving matter
who introduced the earliest belief that life was spontaneously generated from nonliving matter
Aristotle
Aristotle