CHAPTER 5 



'WOLFF'S TREATISE 

 "ON THE FORMATION OF THE INTESTINE" 



This work, as already stated, represents one of the 

 most important stages in the history of embryology. It was 

 published and distributed in a limited edition in "New 

 Commentaries of the Petersburg Academy of Science." It was 

 known to few contemporaries, until Meckel translated it into 

 German in 1812. After that, the biologists interested in 

 the history of science acquainted themselves with Wolff's 

 works. They turned to the distributed edition of the German 

 translation of THEORIA GENERATION!. S, and these readers 

 were able to form their own opinions about Wolff, concluding 

 that his ideas were not always expressed in comprehensible 

 language, were abstract, and were not very convincing 

 discussions about development. 



Wolff's work dedicated to the development of the intestine 

 produced another impression completely. It is a systematic 

 statement of thorough and impartial observations on the 

 development of the chick embryo during the first four days of 

 incubation. The conclusions which the investigator reached 

 clearly arose from his informed facts and therefore were 

 completely convincing. This truly classical work fairly 

 deserved the high evaluation of the leader of embryological 

 science, K. M. Baer. 



The complete title of Wolff's work is "Observations 

 carried out on incubated eggs, mainly on the formation of 

 the intestine, and also on the false amnion and other parts 

 of chick embryo that are still not observed today."! The 



1. C. F. Wolff, DE FORMATIONE INTESTINORUM praecipue turn 

 et de amnio spurio, aliisque partibus embryonis gallinacei, 

 nondum visis observationes , in ovis incubatis institutae . 



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