52 



THE EVOLUTION OF MAN. 



liveliest interest in them after his departure from Wiirzburg, 

 began his own much more comprehensive researches in 

 1819, and nine years later published, as the fruit of these 

 researches, a work on " The History of the Evolution of 

 Animals," which even now is generally and rightly con- 

 sidered the most important and valuable contribution to 

 embryological literature. This book, a true model of careful, 

 experimental investigation, combined with ingenious philo- 

 sophical speculation, appeared in two parts ; the first in 

 the year 1828, the second in 1837.^^ It is the firm founda- 

 tion on which the whole history of the evolution of the 

 individual rests to this day, and so far surpasses its pre- 

 decessors, including Pander's outline, that, next to the 

 labours of Wolff, it must be regarded as the most important 

 basis of modern Ontogeny. As Baer, who died at Doi-pat in 

 November, 1876, was one of the greatest naturahsts of our 

 century, and has exerted a most important influence on 

 other branches of Biology also, it may be of interest to give 

 some account of the life of this extraordinary man. 



Karl Ernst Baer was born in 1792, in Esthonia, on the 

 little estate of Piep, which his father owned. He studied 

 at Dorpat from 1810 to 1814, and then went to Wiirzburg, 

 where Dollinger not only initiated him into Comparative 

 Anatomy and Ontogeny, but also exercised over him, by 

 his own interest in philosophical studies, a highly stimu- 

 lating influence. From Wiirzburg Baer went to Berlin, 

 and then, accepting a call from the physiologist Burdach, 

 to Kbnigsberg. TJiere he delivered lectures on Zoology and 

 Evolution, with some interruptions, until 1834, and com- 

 pleted his most important works. In 1834 he went to St. 

 Petersburg as a member of the Academy of that place. 



