CHAPTER 9 



THE THEORY OF EPI GENES IS IN RUSSIA 

 AT THE END OF THE 18TH CENTURY 



It is impossible to believe that the scientific effect 

 of Wolff's ideas was not realized until many years after 

 his death. During his life his scientific opinions were 

 cited and discussed. Thus the epigenetic ideology was held 

 by Zybelin (30), a professor of the medical faculty of 

 Moscow University and Wolff's contemporary. Beginning with 

 Lomonosov's materialistic principles, Zybelin established 

 that all living creatures come from fluid. "All of mankind, 

 even legendary giants as solid and strong as Hercules, whales 

 and elephants all started from fluid. At their beginning 

 they were nothing but one drop of fluid, from which fibers, 

 membranes, muscles, cartilage and hard bones developed into 

 man, the eternal astonishment of human intellect."! Solving 

 the question about the beginning of individual development 

 from the point of view of epigenesis, Zybelin did not see 

 the necessity for explaining "the union of the parts" by 

 assuming a particular "attractive force." He considered it 

 "not appropriate to exaggerate things and ideas unnecessarily 

 and hence only make science difficult. "2 



In the eighteenth century in Russia, an attempt was made 

 to interfere experimentally in the process of embryogenesis . 



The thoughts about the reason behind the internal union of 

 the parts and about the resulting strength in the human 

 body were expressed when Semen Zybelin received the title 

 of Professor in the Imperial Moscow University of Medicine 

 on August 23, 1768. These words had not been previously 

 published. (Opyt trudov vol"nogo sobraniya pri imp. 

 Moskovskom universitete, Chast' vtoraya, 1775, pp. 152 - 185 

 [citation on pp. 160 - 161)) . 

 Zybelin, p. 180. 



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