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Definition of Spontaneous generation
1. Noun. A hypothetical organic phenomenon by which living organisms are created from nonliving matter.
Generic synonyms: Organic Phenomenon
Derivative terms: Abiogenetic, Abiogenist, Autogenetic
Definition of Spontaneous generation
1. Noun. (biology) the fancied production of living organisms without previously existing parents from inorganic matter, or from decomposing organic matter, a notion which at one time had many supporters; abiogenesis ¹
¹ Source: wiktionary.com
Medical Definition of Spontaneous generation
1. The obsolete hypothesis that living organisms can originate from nonliving matter. (09 Oct 1997)
Lexicographical Neighbors of Spontaneous Generation
Literary usage of Spontaneous generation
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (1861)
"spontaneous generation. WHILE Mr Darwin's Origin of Species has been occupying
the scientific and semi-scientific circles of England, a similar agitation ..."
2. The Cambridge Natural History by Arthur Everett Shipley, Sidney Frederic Harmer (1906)
"The question of the " spontaneous generation " of the Protista was readily answered
in the affirmative by men who believed that Lice bred directly from the ..."
3. The Evolution Theory by August Weismann (1904)
"LECTURE XXXVI spontaneous generation AND EVOLUTION: CONCLUSION Spontaneous
generation—Experimental tests impossible—Only the ..."
4. The American Cyclopaedia: A Popular Dictionary of General Knowledge by Charles Anderson Dana (1876)
"spontaneous generation, the direct production of living beings from inanimate
material, in contradistinction to the ordinary mode of generation, ..."
5. The Practitioner by Gale Group, ProQuest Information and Learning Company (1877)
"On spontaneous generation and the Doctrine of Contagium Vivum. ... THE two
questions of spontaneous generation and of the origin of certain forms of disease ..."
6. Principles of Animal Biology by Aaron Franklin Shull, George Roger Larue, Alexander Grant Ruthven (1920)
"Experiments Discrediting spontaneous generation. ... might arise in a variety of
situations without appealing to the idea of spontaneous generation. ..."