Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 1995

ERNST HEINRICH PHILIPP AUGUST HAECKEL (1834-1919) Generelle Morphologie der Organismen. Allgemeine Grundzüge der organischen Formen-Wissenschaft, mechanisch begründet durch die von Charles Darwin reformirte Descendenz-Theorie. Georg Reimer 1866 Vol. I: xxxii, 574 pp., 2 plates; Vol. II: clx, 462 pp., 8 plates (2 fold.). 23.7 cm.

Haeckel, one of the truly great scientists of the nineteenth century, lived and worked during a time when much new information was being added to all aspects of biology. Haeckel supported Darwin's theory of evolution and was a bold, new voice whose ideas were acclaimed by scientists like Darwin and Thomas Huxley. Haeckel was born in Potsdam and studied medicine at Würzburg, Berlin, and Vienna where he received his degree. He practiced for a time in Berlin but gave that up and went to Italy where he pursued his own private biological studies. In 1861 he accepted a post at Jena, was made professor of zoology in 1865, and remained active in teaching and research until the end of his academic career. It was Haeckel who set forth the biogenetic law, which bears his name, stating "that ontogeny--that is, the history of the formation of the individual--is but the repetition of the phylogenetic history--that is, the formation of the species to which the individual belongs" (Arturo Castiglioni, A history of medicine. New York, 1941. p. 769). The present work is one of the classics of biology and was Haeckel's greatest and most discussed treatise. It has never been entirely accepted by the scientific community, but neither have the biological principles he formulated been successfully refuted. A central element in the book's importance lies in the fact that the questions he raised stimulated further work on the problems of evolution and human development.

Cited references: Garrison-Morton 223; Waller 10819

Gift of John Martin, M.D.