AQA GCSE History · 8145
Paper 2
Revise: Development of Germ TheorySupporters of spontaneous generation believed that decaying matter produced microorganisms. This made microbes appear to be a result of decay rather than its cause.
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GCSE History · key term
The belief that microorganisms arise spontaneously from decaying matter, rather than coming from existing microorganisms.
Used by AQA and Edexcel
Paper 2
Revise: Development of Germ TheorySupporters of spontaneous generation believed that decaying matter produced microorganisms. This made microbes appear to be a result of decay rather than its cause.
Paper 1
The theory that microorganisms arose spontaneously from decaying matter, rather than coming from existing microorganisms.
Revise: Ideas About the Cause of DiseaseSupporters of spontaneous generation argued that decaying matter produced microbes. This could fit alongside miasma: microbes were associated with decay, while bad air was still blamed for illness. New observations could therefore be fitted into older explanations rather than overturning them.
Keep the two theories distinct: spontaneous generation claimed that decay produced microbes; Pasteur showed that microbes caused decay.
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