4.2 THE EVOLUTION OF MAN. 



century submitted to the dictum of this physiological pope, 

 and opposed Epigenesis as a dangerous innovation. More 

 than half a century elapsed before Wolff's labours met with 

 their deserved acknowledgment. Only after Meckel, in the 

 year 1812, had translated into German another most im- 

 portant publication of Wolffs, " On the Formation of the 

 Intestinal Canal " (published 1764), and had drawn atten- 

 tion to its extraordinary significance, people began to re- 

 occupy themselves with this almost forgotten author, who, 

 of all the naturalists of the preceding century, had made the 

 deepest progress into the knowledge of the living organism. 



Thus, as so often happens in the history of human know- 

 ledge, new-born truth succumbed to all-powerful error, 

 upheld by the weight of authority. The knowledge of Epi- 

 genesis, clear as the sun, was not able to pierce through the 

 thick fog of the Dogma of Pre-formation, and its ingenious 

 discoverer was vanquished in the fight for the truth by the 

 overwhelming power of the enemy. 



The result was that all progress in the History of Evo- 

 lution was for a while arrested. This is all the more to be 

 regretted because Wolff was finally compelled, by untoward 

 circumstances, to quit his German Fatherland. From the 

 first without means, he had only been able to finish his clas- 

 sical work in the face of great difficulties, and was then com- 

 pelled to earn his bread as a practising physician. During 

 the Seven Years' War he was busy in the Silesian hospital?, 

 and gave excellent lectures on Anatomy in the field hospital 

 of Breslau, attracting the attention of Cothenius, the 

 eminent Director of Hospitals. When peace had been con- 

 cluded, this distinguished patron tried to procure a chaii 

 in Berlin for Wolff, but failed on account of the narrow- 



