This broad theory links microorganisms to disease and was validated by Pasteur and Koch.

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The main concept being tested is that disease is caused by microorganisms, a view established as the germ theory of disease. This theory moved medicine away from ideas that disease came from foul air or from spontaneous generation. Pasteur’s experiments showed that microbes come from the environment and can be controlled or eliminated through methods like sterilization and filtration, demonstrating that living organisms can arise from preexisting microbes rather than appearing spontaneously. Koch then provided direct proof by linking specific microbes to specific diseases through his postulates: a microbe must be present in diseased but not healthy hosts, be cultivable in pure culture, cause disease when introduced into a healthy host, and be re-isolated from the newly diseased host. Together, these insights showed that particular microorganisms are responsible for particular diseases, which is the essence of the germ theory.