MODERN BIOLOGY 499 



it was to take. This is essentially bound up in the two names Gegenbaur and 

 Haeckel, each of whom in his own way represents a different side of the in- 

 fluence of Darwinism upon contemporary culture. 



Carl Gegenbaur was born in 182.6 at Wiirzburg, of an ancient and well- 

 to-do family closely connected with the Civil Service. After being at school 

 in his native town he graduated at its university and applied himself, at 

 variance with his family traditions, to the study of medicine, with a view 

 to fulfilling his ambition to pursue scientific studies, in which he had early 

 shown a keen interest. With his natural bent for science, he at first derived 

 but little pleasure from his country's educational system; the gymnasium 

 in Wiirzburg was run by Jesuits and was conducted in the Jesuitical spirit; 

 nor were things much better at the University, until Kolliker arrived there 

 with Leydig as his assistant. From that time onwards biology received a 

 powerful stimulus, which was still further increased when, a couple of years 

 later, Virchow began his activities as a teacher there. Within a short time 

 these men made of Wiirzburg a nursery for biological research, and amongst 

 their pupils Gegenbaur at once took one of the foremost places. In 1851 he 

 wrote a dissertation for Kolliker and shortly afterwards accompanied his 

 master on his research expedition to the Mediterranean coast, a trip that 

 resulted in the young explorer's being ever afterwards attracted to compara- 

 tive anatomy. The immediate result of the voyage was a number of valuable 

 investigations into marine animals of various kinds, and the consequence of 

 these was a summons to a professorial chair at Jena in 1855. At this little 

 Protestant university, maintained by a liberal-minded Government, Gegen- 

 baur at once succeeded very well, although himself a Catholic; he had had 

 enough of the conditions prevailing at home, where the hospitals were un- 

 der ecclesiastical administration and the doctors were subject to clerical con- 

 trol. At Jena he gathered around him a host of like-minded friends and 

 pupils, chief among them being Haeckel. Here he worked out a scientific 

 system, which he afterwards applied throughout his life, and here too he 

 produced his finest works. In iSyx, however, he accepted an invitation to 

 Heidelberg, where larger resources were placed at his disposal and where 

 he afterwards laboured until the close of the century, when, owing to in- 

 creasing ill health, he resigned. He died in 1903, having been paralysed by 

 repeated strokes. 



Gegenbaur was a forceful personality, a friend to his friends, and an 

 enemy to his enemies. As the founder of a school he is worthy of mention 

 with J. Miiller, but while the latter taught his pupils the method he had 

 invented and in theoretical questions allowed them to go their own way, 

 Gegenbaur permitted no divergence from the general principles he had once 

 and for all made his own. Moreover, he succeeded in inspiring his disciples 

 with such "boundless admiration" (Fiirbringer) that most of them were 



