Félix-Archimède Pouchet (26 August 1800 – 6 December 1872) was a French naturalist and a leading proponent of spontaneous generation of life from non-living materials, and as such an opponent of Louis Pasteur's germ theory.

He also held a chair at one of the local medical preparatory colleges in Rouen in the field of zoology, and in 1843, he received the Legion of Honour.

[5] Pouchet had extensive experience in the field of traditional biology before the debate, where his main interest was animal generation.

Schwann observed that after heating oxygen in a vessel, which was thought to be important for spontaneous generation, no microorganisms grew.

He critiqued the fact that Pouchet again did not control for germs and that his flasks were contaminated by the dust in the mercury that was in his lab.

[1] Despite the criticism, Pouchet published his famous book Hétérogénie ou traité de la génération spontanée in 1859, which publicized his support of spontaneous generation.

[4] On January 30, 1860, the French Academy of Sciences declared that it would give out a prize for detailed and precise experiments that expanded on the subject of spontaneous generation.

Pasteur decided to partake in this competition to combat Pouchet's support of spontaneous generation.

Pouchet eventually dropped out of the competition in November 1862 and Pasteur was awarded for his studies on spontaneous generation.

[1] Pouchet also wrote a history of science during the Middle Ages, which he titled Histoire des sciences naturelles au moyen age, ou Albert le Grand et son epoque considere comme point de depart de I'ecole experimentale.

In the work, Pouchet divides the history of Western science into three epochs: Greek, Roman and Christian.

This was part of a general rewriting of Western intellectual history to mythologise it as a single inevitable progress towards the modern age.