Back at least to the time of Aristotle in ancient Greece, men of science used to believe in the spontaneous generation of life

from
non-living matter. Aristotle laid it down as an observed fact that some animals spring from putrid matter, that lice arise from the
dew which falls on plants, that fleas developed out of decayed material, that mice come from sweat or dirty hay, crocodiles from
rotting logs, etc.