Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 1005

CASPAR FRIEDRICH WOLFF (1733-1794) Teoriia zarozhdeniia [Russian title transliterated]. Akademií nauk SSSR 1950 630 pp., 4 plates (2 fold.). 22.1 cm.

Wolff began his medical studies in his native city of Berlin but transferred to Halle where he received his medical degree in 1759 with his famous dissertation on epigenesis, Theoria generationis. He taught at Breslau and later Berlin before becoming professor of anatomy and physiology at the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. His Theoria is considered to be the most important contribution to the field of embryology between the work of Malpighi (see No. 569 ff.) and von Baer (see No. 1493). Wolff's description of tissue differentiation in embryonic development was a major step in ending the old theory of "preformation." His concept that body parts were formed from blastodermic layers of the embryo led to the later development of the germ layer theory by Baer and Heinrich Christian Pander (1794-1865). The present Russian translation includes both the 1795 and 1764 editions of Wolff's Theoria generationis. The translations were made by Evgenií Nikanorovich Pavlovskií (1884-1965).

See Related Record(s): 569 1493

Cited references: Cushing W263 (1st Latin ed., 1759); Garrison-Morton 470 (1st ed.); Osler 4266 (1st ed.)

Gift of John Martin, M.D.