Experiments on the Generation of Insects
Redi is most often remembered for his experiments published in 1668 as Experiments on the Generation of Insects. This is regarded as one of the first pieces of work disproving the ideas of spontaneous generation. At the time it was commonly believes that maggots formed naturally from rotting meat. Redi's experiments disproved this. Redi used a controlled experiment to do so. What redi did was pretty straight forward. As shown in the picture above he took Six jars. In each of the jars and placed raw meat in them. Two of the jars where left wide open. Another two where sealed air tight, and the last two where covered with mesh so air could get in but flies could not. What he discovered was that maggots only appeared on the meat in which flies could land on them. This went on to prove that maggots do not form from raw meat but form from eggs laid by flies. He expanded on this by capturing maggots and waiting them to metamorphose into flies which they did. Also he discovered when dead maggots or flies where put into sealed jars with raw meat no more maggots or flies appeared, but when living flies and maggots where put into sealed jars with raw meat more maggots appeared. These discoveries showed that maggots do not form from raw meat but form from the eggs of flies. This was the first step in disproving the spontaneous generation.