Answer:
van Helmont gave an example supporting the theory of Theory of spontaneous generation.
Step-by-step explanation:
Aristotle was the first to give the theory of spontaneous generation which is also called as abiogenesis which means complex living organisms are generated form decaying organic substance, eg- organisms like mice spontaneously appears in stored grain or maggots appeared in meat.
Other scientist who were proponents of the theory cited how frogs simply seem to appear along the muddy banks of the Nile River in Egypt during the annual flooding. Others observed that mice simply appeared among grain stored in barns with thatched roofs. When the roof leaked and the grain molded, mice appeared. Jan Baptista van Helmont, a seventeenth century Flemish scientist, proposed that mice could arise from rags and wheat kernels left in an open container for 3 weeks. In reality, such habitats provided ideal food sources and shelter for mouse populations to flourish.