improvements in microscope lenses in the mid-nineteenth century, the role of
bacteria in some of these fermentations was established.
At the same time, Pasteur was performing experiments to refute the claims of
Félix Archimède Pouchet regarding spontaneous generation. It was this work that
attracted Darwin’s attention. He mentioned Pasteur’s memoir (Mémoir sur les
corpuscules organisés qui existent dans l’atmosphère (1861)) in letters to colleagues
and remarked that he was impressed with his work on this subject. Darwin was
interested in the subject because of his interest in the origin of life on Earth. He
thought it possible that life arose from inorganic material at the beginning of life. In a
letter to his friend, the botanist Joseph Hooker, in 1871, he wrote:
It is often said that all the conditions for the first production of a living organism are now
present, which could ever have been present.— But if (& oh what a big if) we could conceive
in some warm little pond with all sorts of ammonia & phosphoric salts,—light, heat,
electricity &c present, that a protein compound was chemically formed, ready to undergo
still more complex changes, at the present day such matter wd be instantly devoured, or
absorbed, which would not have been the case before living creatures were formed. (Darwin
Correspondence Project Letter no. 7471 2019c)
However, Darwin rejected the idea of spontaneous generation, or the theory of
“heterogeny” as it was then called, occurring in modern times (Darwin 1863). He
knew that a spontaneous origin of life from nonliving matter was important for the
completeness of his theory, but he also thought that we are a long way from knowing
how this event came to occur, writing, “It is mere rubbish thinking, at present, of
origin of life; one might as well think of origin of matter (Darwin Correspondence
Project Letter no. 4065 2019b).”
Ferdinand Cohn corresponded with Darwin from 1874 to 1882, though he is
mentioned in Darwin’s letters from 1862. Cohn played an important role in the
beginnings of microbiology and its relation to Darwin’s work. Their correspondence
was about Cohn’s work with plant movements, a topic that Darwin studied for many
years. Darwin was aware of his work regarding the question of spontaneous generation, and Cohn sent him details of Koch’s work and Koch’s first photographs of
bacteria in 1877 (Darwin Correspondence Project Letter no. 11298 2019d). Darwin
also commented to him on the discovery of the role of bacteria in diseases in 1878
(Darwin Correspondence Project Letter no. 11310 2019e). Cohn thought highly of
Darwin’s work, and he even visited him at Down in 1876 where Emma, Charles’
wife, wrote in her diary, “Professor Cohn (quite deaf) and his wife (very pleasing)
and a Professor R. came to lunch—anything like the noise they made I never heard”
(Litchfield 1915).
Darwin used microbes to support his Natural Selection theory against criticisms
that microbes were evidence against the theory (O’Malley 2009). Readers of Origin
of Species generally thought that natural selection operated to bring about increasing
complexity. Indeed, Darwin even wrote in the first edition, “And as natural selection
works solely by and for the good of each being, all corporeal and mental endowments will tend to progress towards perfection (Darwin 1959 p. 489).” Critics
pointed out that infusoria were no more complex now than they were in the past,
2 Darwin’s Science’s Impact on the Evolution of the Microbiological Sciences
23
bacteria in some of these fermentations was established.
At the same time, Pasteur was performing experiments to refute the claims of
Félix Archimède Pouchet regarding spontaneous generation. It was this work that
attracted Darwin’s attention. He mentioned Pasteur’s memoir (Mémoir sur les
corpuscules organisés qui existent dans l’atmosphère (1861)) in letters to colleagues
and remarked that he was impressed with his work on this subject. Darwin was
interested in the subject because of his interest in the origin of life on Earth. He
thought it possible that life arose from inorganic material at the beginning of life. In a
letter to his friend, the botanist Joseph Hooker, in 1871, he wrote:
It is often said that all the conditions for the first production of a living organism are now
present, which could ever have been present.— But if (& oh what a big if) we could conceive
in some warm little pond with all sorts of ammonia & phosphoric salts,—light, heat,
electricity &c present, that a protein compound was chemically formed, ready to undergo
still more complex changes, at the present day such matter wd be instantly devoured, or
absorbed, which would not have been the case before living creatures were formed. (Darwin
Correspondence Project Letter no. 7471 2019c)
However, Darwin rejected the idea of spontaneous generation, or the theory of
“heterogeny” as it was then called, occurring in modern times (Darwin 1863). He
knew that a spontaneous origin of life from nonliving matter was important for the
completeness of his theory, but he also thought that we are a long way from knowing
how this event came to occur, writing, “It is mere rubbish thinking, at present, of
origin of life; one might as well think of origin of matter (Darwin Correspondence
Project Letter no. 4065 2019b).”
Ferdinand Cohn corresponded with Darwin from 1874 to 1882, though he is
mentioned in Darwin’s letters from 1862. Cohn played an important role in the
beginnings of microbiology and its relation to Darwin’s work. Their correspondence
was about Cohn’s work with plant movements, a topic that Darwin studied for many
years. Darwin was aware of his work regarding the question of spontaneous generation, and Cohn sent him details of Koch’s work and Koch’s first photographs of
bacteria in 1877 (Darwin Correspondence Project Letter no. 11298 2019d). Darwin
also commented to him on the discovery of the role of bacteria in diseases in 1878
(Darwin Correspondence Project Letter no. 11310 2019e). Cohn thought highly of
Darwin’s work, and he even visited him at Down in 1876 where Emma, Charles’
wife, wrote in her diary, “Professor Cohn (quite deaf) and his wife (very pleasing)
and a Professor R. came to lunch—anything like the noise they made I never heard”
(Litchfield 1915).
Darwin used microbes to support his Natural Selection theory against criticisms
that microbes were evidence against the theory (O’Malley 2009). Readers of Origin
of Species generally thought that natural selection operated to bring about increasing
complexity. Indeed, Darwin even wrote in the first edition, “And as natural selection
works solely by and for the good of each being, all corporeal and mental endowments will tend to progress towards perfection (Darwin 1959 p. 489).” Critics
pointed out that infusoria were no more complex now than they were in the past,
2 Darwin’s Science’s Impact on the Evolution of the Microbiological Sciences
23