VON BAER AND RISE OF EMBRYOLOGY. 113 



The observations for the first part began in 1819, after he had 

 received a copy of Pander's researches and covered a period of seven 

 years of close devotion to the subject, and the observations for the 

 last part were carried on at intervals for several years. 



It is significant of the character of his ' Keflexionen ' that, although 

 published before the announcement of the cell-theory, and before the 

 acceptance of the doctrine of organic evolution, they have exerted a 

 moulding influence upon embryology to the present time. The posi- 

 tion of Von Baer in embryology, is due as much to his sagacity in 

 speculation, as to his powers as an observer. " Never again have 

 observation and thought been so successfully combined in embryo- 

 logical work " (Minot). 



Von Baer was born in 1792, and lived on to 1876, but his enduring 

 fame in embryology rests on work completed more than forty years 

 before the end of his useful life. After his removal from Konigsberg 

 to St. Petersburg, in 1834, he very largely devoted himself to anthro- 

 pology in its widest sense, and thereby extended his scientific reputation 

 into other fields. 



If space permitted, it would be interesting to give the biography* 

 of this extraordinary man, but here, it will be necessary to content our- 

 selves with an examination of his portrait and a brief account of his 

 work. 



Several portraits of Von Baer showing him at different periods of 

 his life have been published. A very attractive one, taken in his early 

 manhood, appeared in Harper s Magazine for 1898. The expression of 

 the face is poetical, and the picture is interesting to compare with the 

 more matured sage-like countenance forming the frontispiece of Stieda's 

 ' Life of Von Baer.' This, perhaps best of all his portraits, shows him 

 in the full development of his powers. An examination of it impresses 

 one with confidence in his balanced judgment and the thoroughness and 

 profundity of his mental operations. 



The portrait of Von Baer at about seventy years of age, reproduced 

 in Fig. 7 is destined to be the one by which he is commonly known to 

 embryologists, since it forms the frontispiece of the great cooperative 

 ' Handbook of Embryology ' now appearing under the editorship of 

 Oskar Her twig. 



Apart from special discoveries, Von Baer greatly enriched em- 

 bryology in three directions : In the first place, he set a higher standard 

 for all work in embryology and thereby lifted the entire science to a 

 higher level. Activity in a great field of this kind is, with the rank 

 and file of workers, so largely imitative that this feature of his influence 



* Besides biographical sketches by Stieda, Waldeyer and others, we have 

 a very entertaining autobiography of Von Baer, published in 1864, for private 

 circulation, but afterwards (1866) reprinted and placed on sale. 



vol. lxvii. — 8. 



