Editing Spontaneous generation (section)

== Previous beliefs ==

* [[Frog|Frogs]] were believed to have spontaneously generated from mud.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Spontaneous Generation in Antiquity –TAPA 51:101‑115 (1920) |url=http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Journals/TAPA/51/Spontaneous_Generation*.html#:~:text=There%20was%20a%20well-established%20notion%20in%20antiquity%20that%20frogs%20were%20generated%20from%20mud,%E2%80%8B65%20an%20idea%20that%20persisted%20beyond%20the%20Middle%20Ages. |access-date=2023-05-22 |website=penelope.uchicago.edu}}</ref>
* [[Mouse|Mice]] were believed to become pregnant though the act of licking salt, or grew from the moisture of the earth.<ref name=":0" />
* [[Barnacle goose|Barnacle geese]] were thought to have emerged from a [[crustacean]], the [[goose barnacle]] (see the [[barnacle goose myth]]).
* [[Snake|Snakes]] could generate from the marrow of the human [[Vertebral column|spine]],<ref name=":0" /> and had previously generated from the blood of [[Medusa]].
* [[Eel|Eels]] had multiple stories. Aristotle claimed that [[eel]]s emerged from [[earthworm]]s, and were lacking in [[sex]] and [[milt]], [[spawn (biology)|spawn]] and passages for these.<ref>{{cite book |author=Aristotle |url=https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/a/aristotle/history/complete.html |title=The History of Animals |publisher=Clarendon Press |year=1910 |isbn=90-6186-973-0 |location=Oxford |translator=D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson |chapter=Book IV |author-link=Aristotle |access-date=2009-01-06 |chapter-url=http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/a/aristotle/history/book4.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171118011659/https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/a/aristotle/history/complete.html |archive-date=2017-11-18 |url-status=dead |orig-year=c. 343 BCE}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Aristotle |url=https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/a/aristotle/history/complete.html |title=History of Animals |publisher=Clarendon Press |year=1910 |isbn=90-6186-973-0 |location=Oxford |translator=D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson |chapter=Book VI |author-link=Aristotle |access-date=2009-01-06 |chapter-url=http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/a/aristotle/history/book6.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171118011659/https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/a/aristotle/history/complete.html |archive-date=2017-11-18 |url-status=dead |orig-year=c. 343 BCE}}</ref> Later authors dissented. The Roman author and natural historian [[Pliny the Elder]] did not argue against the anatomic limits of eels, but stated that eels reproduce by budding, scraping themselves against rocks, liberating particles that become eels.<ref>{{cite book |author=Gaius Plinius Secundus |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Plin.+Nat.+toc |title=Natural History |year=1855 |editor1-last=Bostock |editor1-first=John |editor1-link=John Bostock (physician) |volume=Book IX. The natural history of fishes |chapter=74. (50.) – The generation of fishes |author-link=Pliny the Elder |access-date=21 February 2021 |editor2-last=Riley |editor2-first=Henry Thomas |editor2-link=Henry Thomas Riley |chapter-url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137&query=head%3D%23492 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080915064348/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Plin.+Nat.+toc |archive-date=15 September 2008 |url-status=live |orig-year=c. 77}}</ref> The Greek author [[Athenaeus]] described eels as entwining and discharging a fluid which would settle on mud and generate life. 
* [[Bookworm (insect)|Bookworms]] could generate from excessive wind. [[Vitruvius]], a [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] [[architect]] and writer of the 1st century BCE, advised that to stop their generation, [[libraries]] be placed facing eastwards to benefit from morning light, but not towards the south or the west as those winds were particularly offensive.<ref>{{cite book |author=Marcus Vitruvius Pollio |url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Vitruvius/home.html |title=On Architecture (de Architectura) |publisher=Priestley and Weale |others=electronic format by Bill Thayer |year=1826 |volume=Book VI |location=London |translator=Joseph Gwilt |chapter=Part 4 |author-link=Vitruvius |access-date=2009-02-03 |chapter-url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Vitruvius/6*.html#4.1 |orig-year=c. 25 BCE}}</ref>
* [[Bee|Bees]] were generated in decomposing cows, through a process known as [[bugonia]]. [[Samson's riddle]] led some to believe they could also generate through the body of a [[lion]]. 
* [[Wasp|Wasps]] could be generated from decomposing horses.
* [[Cicada]] were generated from the spittle of the [[cuckoo]].<ref name=":0" />