Lazzaro Spallanzani: January 10, 1729-February 12, 1799
Beginnings
Lazzaro Spallanzani was born in Scandiano, Italy. His father was a distinguished lawyer named Giannicolo. When Lazzaro was 15 years old, he was sent to Jesuit College at Regio Emilio. He studied the classics, philosophy, natural sciences, mathematics and even earned a doctorate in Law at the University of Bologna, of which he was not fond. In 1757, Lazzaro became a doctor of Philosophy and then ordained a priest in 1757. Having no form of personal income, the money of the church aided in his explorations in the area of natural phenomena.
Spontaneous Generation: Disproving through Experiments
Spallanzani believed that organisms already existed in some form in a container or in the air. He proposed that boiling solutions in flasks would kill the organisms. In the experiments he had 4 flasks, each filled with a broth. The first was left open, the second was sealed, the third was boiled and left open, and the fourth and final flask was boiled and then sealed. The results of his experiment were as follows:
Flask One: Microbes had formed
Flask Two: Microbes had formed
Flask Three: Microbes had Formed
Flask Four: No microbes were found.
Flask one was found to have microbes in it because of the exposure to the air. Flask two also was found to have microbes despite its being sealed, it however was not boiled. Flask three contained microbes having been boiled and then left open and exposed to the air. The final flask was both boiled and sealed, killing the microbes and remaining unexposed to microbes.
His hypothesis was correct when if the flask was left unexposed. However, some believed that he didn't actually further disprove the theory, he merely proved that boiling destroyed what was already there, and that his experiments proved nothing in reality. No he did not single handedly disprove the long held theory of spontaneous generation, he did however help further its disproving through his experiments.
Flask One: Microbes had formed
Flask Two: Microbes had formed
Flask Three: Microbes had Formed
Flask Four: No microbes were found.
Flask one was found to have microbes in it because of the exposure to the air. Flask two also was found to have microbes despite its being sealed, it however was not boiled. Flask three contained microbes having been boiled and then left open and exposed to the air. The final flask was both boiled and sealed, killing the microbes and remaining unexposed to microbes.
His hypothesis was correct when if the flask was left unexposed. However, some believed that he didn't actually further disprove the theory, he merely proved that boiling destroyed what was already there, and that his experiments proved nothing in reality. No he did not single handedly disprove the long held theory of spontaneous generation, he did however help further its disproving through his experiments.