Induction and the History of Science

Many scientists and philosophers - from 400 BC, with Aristotle, and until the mid-nineteenth century - have argued that some organisms can spontaneously generate from non-living matter, on the basis of different experiences that suggested this generalization. 

This hypothesis is known as "the theory of spontaneous generation" and originates from the experience and observation of the larvae and flies that are generated on decomposing flesh. This theory was first denied by Francesco Redi in 1600, then by Louis Pasteur (around the middle of the nineteenth century), who definitively rejected the theory of spontaneous generation.