OCTOBEE 11, 1912] 



SCIENCE 



463 



Seldom is the scientific life work of a 

 scholar revealed to us so clearly and 

 divided into periods so dominated by mo- 

 tives as that of Dohm's The beginning 

 is composed of systematic entomological 

 work, inspired by the father's occupations. 

 Arthropods were, therefore, especially well 

 understood by him. Naturally, as a result 

 of Darwin's influence, a change took place 

 in his scientific thought, and he at once 

 applied to the arthropods his phylogenetic 

 theories. In the monograph on pantopoda, 

 published in 1881, the second period ter- 

 minates. This work proves the fact that 

 through his colossal undertaking, "Fauna 

 and Flora," Dohrn wished to set a good 

 example in a field that was hardly sympa- 

 thetic to him at the time. Meanwhile he 

 had reached out to grapple with the most 

 important genealogical problem, viz., that 

 of the origin of vertebrates. As early as 

 1875 in the much-noticed publication, ' ' The 

 Origin of Vertebrates and the Principle of 

 Functional Change," he had outlined the 

 proposed work. And now followed, with the 

 same end in view, "The Studies upon the 

 Origin of the Vertebrate Body, ' ' with which 

 Dohrn 's twenty-fifth publication came to a 

 close in 1907 ; before even the greatest part 

 of the mass of introductory work had been 

 completed. 



In all these works he is heart and soul 

 historian. Good-humoredly conversing with 

 Momsen, who at first was not favorably dis- 

 posed to him, Dohrn affirmed that as a 

 matter of fact fundamentally they were 

 working at the same problems. For the 

 zoologist, he maintained, carries on arche- 

 ological historical studies, but in epochs 

 much more remote than those of so-called 

 ancient history. Again and again in his 

 writings he makes such comparisons as 

 these. The study of man was in reality 

 covered in his studies of vertebrates. His 

 aim was not to erect family trees, but to 



get an understanding of their growth. No 

 biological law could, in his opinion, have 

 taken the place of genetic observations. 

 He humorously compared the phylogenetic 

 stages with the ancestral picture gallery of 

 a royal castle. To him the epochs were also 

 comparable with the technical models in a 

 museum showing all steps in the develop- 

 ment of a steam engine or dynamo. He 

 was convinced, in fine, that both develop- 

 ments — the phylogeny of man and the his- 

 tory of man — must go back to one basic 

 principle. This he believed, even though 

 at the time he had not advanced beyond 

 certain indefinite premonitions. Charax;- 

 teristic of this is his well-known preference 

 for ontogeny in arriving at phylogenetic 

 conclusions as contrasted with comparative 

 anatomy. He was even convinced that he 

 could correctly explain the significance of 

 specific cases and many a heated battle was 

 waged over these opinions. To-day we may 

 allow these debatable questions to lie quiet, 

 for whether or not we grant Dohm's the- 

 oretical standpoint, a saying of Liebig's is 

 justly applicable to him. ' ' One who works 

 is sure to make discoveries, no matter where 

 he starts." What may have appeared to 

 "the author, in his effort to reach the ideal, 

 as possibly only his working materials — the 

 great quantity of facts that he brought to 

 light by his untiring application, and the 

 greater improvement of his methods — gave 

 him an honored position among the stu- 

 dents of animal morphology; especially in 

 the most difficult of all fields, namely, that 

 dealing with the genesis of the vertebrate 

 head. 



Most of Dohrn 's publications possess, 

 aside from their subject matter, great lit- 

 erary charm. If we divide, as does Wil- 

 helm Ostwald, investigators into classicists 

 and romanticists, it will be seen from what 

 has already been said that Dohrn was 

 markedly representative of the romanticist 



