50 THE EVOLUTION OF MAN. 



same field, and trod in his very footsteps unconsciously. 

 That they really did not know his works is proved by the 

 fact that they did not advance as far as Wolff had done. 

 In the year 1812 when Meckel translated Wolff's book on 

 the Evolution of the Intestinal Canal into German, and 

 called attention to its great importance, the eyes of anato- 

 mists and physiologists were for the first time suddenly 

 opened, and a great number of Biologists soon after under- 

 took new embryological investigations, following out and 

 corroborating Wolff's theory step by step. 



This revival of Ontogeny, and the first confirmation and 

 further development of the only true theory of Epigenesis, 

 started from the university of Wiirzburg. The distinguished 

 biologist, Dollinger, Avas then lecturing there. He was the 

 father of the famous theologian of Munich, who has done 

 such good service in our day by his opposition to the new 

 dogma of papal infallibility. Dollinger was both a thought- 

 ful natural philosopher, and an accurate biological observer. 

 He felt the greatest interest in the History of Evolution, 

 and was much occupied with it. Yet he himself was unable 

 to produce any very important work in this department, 

 from want of means. But in the year 1816, a young doctor 

 of medicine, who ha,d just gi-aduated, and whom we shall 

 soon learn to know as the most important follower of Wolff, 

 came to Wiirzburg. This was Karl Ernst Baer. His con- 

 versations with Dollinger on the History of Evolution 

 resulted in a renewal of the investigations. Dollinger ex- 

 pressed a wish that, under his direction, some young 

 naturalist should undertake a series of independent re- 

 searches into the evolution of the Chick during the hatching 

 of the egg. But neithei* he nor Baer possessed the con- 





