BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Ix 
formation and epigenesis. He defines his position in the follow- 
ing words: ‘I should perhaps say at the outset that I have no 
theory of development either to announce or to defend. It is of 
more importance just now to have well-defined standpoints and 
clear ideas of guiding principles. The possibility, not te say 
probability, that the egg is from the beginning of its existence as 
an individual cell definitely oriented has as yet received but little 
attention.”’ ‘‘The drift of opinion, as it seems to me, is neither 
back to the standpoint of Harvey and Wolff nor to that of Bonnet 
and Haller, but towards a new standpoint which seeks to avoid 
the errors and blend the truth of the old hypotheses.’’? Whit- 
man’s standpoint is summed up in the two following quotations: 
‘The indubitable fact on which we now build is—the ready-formed 
living germ, with an organization cut directly from a pre-existing 
parental organization of the same kind. The essential thing here 
is—actual identity of germ organization and stirp organization.” 
And again: “Let this organization stand for not more than our 
neo-epigenesists freely concede, namely, that original constitution 
of the germ, which predetermines its type of development—let 
it stand for nothing more than that and obviously the standpoint 
rises to an altitude scarcely dreamed of in the philosophy of Har- 
vey and Wolff.” 
Whitman devoted much time to the study of Bonnet’s ‘nee 
of evolution. If one asks why he should have thought it worth 
while to give so much attention to a discredited theory of the 
eighteenth century, the answer is first that he wished clearly to 
point out the error of those ‘‘who imagine that they see in recent 
theories of development a renaissance of Bonnet’s evolution” 
and, second, that ‘‘if our theories of development are carrying us 
back to the standpoint reached by the evolutionists of the last 
century it is a matter of more than historical interest.’? His 
conclusion is ‘‘That the old and the new evolution are based on 
antithetical conceptions which exclude each other at every point.” 
“The old evolution (preformation) was the greatest error that 
ever obstructed the progress of our knowledge of development. 
If our examination has helped to clear the mist that obscured 
important distinctions we have not labored wholly in vain.” 
