ON THE GENETIC VIEW OF NATURE. 303 



of his contemporaries which Darwin did, and for 

 which he indeed largely prepared the way. Instead 

 of opposing the genetic change and development of 

 the forms of natural objects to their apparent fixity, 

 he rather reconciled both views with each other by 

 maintaining l " that in order to obtain a just insight 

 into the mutual affinities of animals it is before all 

 things necessary to distinguish the different types of 

 organisation from the different grades of development." 

 He considered that 2 " the idea of animal organisation 

 does not vary at equal intervals, but is realised in 

 certain principal forms which again break up into 

 variations of a lower grade " ; and he 3 " arrived at the 

 four principal divisions of the animal kingdom estab- 

 lished by Cuvier." In 1828, in his work on the 'De- 

 velopment of Animals,' he discusses 4 " the prevalent 

 notion that the embryo of higher animals passes through 

 the permanent forms of the lower animals " i.e., " the 

 doctrine of the agreement of individual metamorphosis 

 with the ideal metamorphosis of the whole animal 

 kingdom." Von Baer had himself added greatly 5 to 



1 See Huxley's translation, loc. results : " It was von Baer who 

 cit., p. 178. I first clearly discriminated the great 



2 Ibid., p. 182. 



3 Ibid., p. 183. 



4 See K. E. von Baer's 'Ueber 

 Entwickelungsgeschichte der Thiere 

 Beobachtung und Reflexion,' Konigs- 

 berg, 1828. The above extracts 

 are taken from the fifth scholion : 

 " Ueber das Verhaltniss der Formen, 

 die das Individuum in den versohie- 

 denen Stufen seiner Entwickelung 

 annimmt." See also Huxley's 

 Translation, loc. cit., pp. 186, 189. 



8 Prof. J. A. Thomson sum- 

 marises as follows von Baer's own 



events in a life-history ; (a) the 

 primary process of egg-cleavage, 

 and the establishment of the 

 germinal layers ; (b) the gradual 

 differentiation of the tissues (his- 

 togenesis) ; and (c) the blocking 

 out of the organs (organogenesis), 

 and the shape-taking of the entire 

 organism (morphogenesis) (' Science 

 of Life,' p. 123). The classical 

 work of von Baer is dedicated to 

 his friend Pander, from whom and 

 Dollinger he acknowledges having 

 received the first impulses towards 



