CHAPTER 4 



THE "THEORY OF GENERATION" OF K. F. WOLFF 



Wolff's first work, with which he began to found the 

 epigenetic theory and his struggle against preformation, was 

 his Latin dissertation, THEORIA GENERATIONS, 1 to which 

 his German book under the same title is related. 2 Wolff's 

 factual data and his opinions appear strictly and systemati- 

 cally in THEORIA GENERATIONS . THEORIE VON DER 

 GENERATION provides necessary additions and explanations. 



Wolff's dissertation begins with the established plan of 

 the whole work. First, Wolff determined "the development of 

 the organized body" as the appearance of all parts of this 

 body (§ 1). He sent a compliment to the "famous Haller," who, 

 in Wolff's words, discovered the laws of development, i.e. 

 found the influence of the power of the living body by 

 which its formation is accomplished (§ 2) . The compliment 

 to Haller cannot be explained by the real merits of the latter 

 in the creation of the development theory. But its purpose 

 can be seen from Wolff's letters to Haller, in which Wolff 

 hoped to attract the famous physiologist to his side and to 

 convince him of the correctness of his own opinions. This 

 phrase about Haller stands in direct contradiction with the 

 contents of the following thesis, in which Wolff spoke 

 directly against the preformation (predelineation) theory, 

 i.e. in fact against Haller. This famous thesis runs as 

 follows (§ 3) : "The defenders of a predelineation system do 

 not explain the phenomenon of generation, but confirm that 

 this does not exist." In his dissertation, Wolff clearly, 



Kaspar Friedrich Wolff, THEORIA GENERATIONS , Halae 

 ad Salam, 1759, 146 pp. In the present work the Latin 

 text is used and also its German translation, Leipzig, 

 1896, 95 + 98 pp. 



Kaspar Friedrich Wolff, THEORIE VON DER GENERATION. 

 IN ZWO ABHANDLUNGEN ERKLART UND BEWIESEN, Berlin: 

 F. W. Birnstiel, 1764, 16 + 284 pp. 



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