i88 EMBRYOLOGY IN THE SEVENTEENTH [pt. ii 



These writers, together with Haller himself, and J. C. Heffter 

 who handled problems of embryonic rate of growth contribute to 

 one of the best, because most quantitative, aspects of eighteenth- 

 century embryology. 



3*11. Albrecht von Haller and his Contemporaries 



Boerhaave's greatest pupil was Albrecht von Haller. Like O. W. 

 Holmes, at Harvard, Haller occupied a "settee" rather than a "chair", 

 at Gottingen, and taught not only physiology but also medicine 

 and surgery, botany, anatomy and pharmacology. Nor did he 

 merely deal with so many subjects superficially; in each case he 

 published what amounted to the best and most complete text-book 

 up to then written. Haller was made Professor in 1736, and for 

 many years worked at Gottingen, devoting much of his time to 

 embryological researches, which, with those of his opponent Wolff, 

 stand out as the greatest between Malpighi and von Baer. In 1 750 

 he published a series of dissertations and short papers on all kinds 

 of physiological subjects, which would have been the direct ancestors 

 of the modern compilations of groups of experts, had they been more 

 systematically arranged. The volume on generation repays some 

 study. The contributions relevant to the present discussion had been 

 written at various times during the previous seventy years, and may 

 be summarised as follows : 



IV. Christopher Sturmius, De plantarum animaliumque generatione. 

 (First published 1687.) In this paper Sturmius argues on 

 behalf of the preformation theory "which in our times 

 does not lack supporters", quoting Perrault, Harvey and 

 Descartes. He contents himself with countering arguments 

 which had been urged against it, as, {a) spontaneous 

 generation, {b) annual recurrence of plants, {c) insect 

 metamorphosis, {d) generation without copulation. 

 V. Rudolf Jacob Camerarius, Specimen experimentorum physiologico- 

 therapeuticorum circa generationem hominis et animalium. The 

 most interesting thing about this is that Camerarius 

 mentions the observations of D. Seiller, a sculptor, who 

 had ascertained that the body is five times the size of the 

 head in the embryo but seven and a half times the size of it 

 in the adult. This is in the direct line between Leonardo 

 and Scammon. 



