Acceptance of the possibility of some outside effect on its 

 course signifies the assumption of the ep'igenetic nature of 

 embryonic development, because from the point of view of 

 preformation the development of the fetus is predetermined in 

 every detail from the beginning. The experimental investigation 

 mentioned above is that of the physicist D. A. Gallitzin 

 (Evdokiia Golitsyna) (31) . In his letter to the Petersburg 

 Academy of Science, "On Some Electric Objects," 3 Gallitzin 

 reported his experiments on electric manifestations. In 

 conclusion, he wrote the following: "I cannot hold to ... , 

 or state here the results of a particular single experiment 

 which was carried out in the last year. Because this experiment 

 is a single one, it is completely possible that its results are 

 of an accidental nature; I am hoping that this year I will 

 have the opportunity to repeat it. On July 5,1 electrified for 

 half an hour, eight eggs which had been incubated for nine days 

 and left four eggs without electrification. A hen continued to 

 sit on the eggs. On the 17th day of that month, at midday, 

 the young chicks started to hatch; by evening all had appeared 

 and all had black feathers. On the evening of the 18th only 

 one chick hatched from the four non-electrified eggs. One egg 

 was found broken and contained a white chick. The two 

 remaining eggs were found to be nonfertilized. The brood hen 

 was white" (p. 15) . 



What is interesting here, of course, is not the result 

 of the experiment itself but the idea, indicating the spread 

 of epigenesis among Russian scientists. Wolff's ideas had 

 gained significance in one of the early manuals of the history 

 of biology — in the presentation of J. Beseke's AN ATTEMPT 

 AT A HISTORY OF THE HYPOTHESIS ABOUT THE GENERATION 

 OF ANIMALS, which appeared in Russia in 1797, 4 This book 

 and its author deserve to be extracted from the injustice of 

 oblivion (32) . 



Lettre sur quelques objets d'electricite adressee a 

 l'Academie Imperiale des Sciences de St. Petersbourg par 

 S. E. Mr le prince Dimitri de Gallitzin, St. Petersb. , 

 De l'imprim. de l'Acad., 1778, 16 pp. in quarto. 

 Beseke, VERSUCH EINER GESCHICHTE DER HYPOTHESEN 

 UBER ERZEUGUNG DER THIERE . . ., Mitau, 1797. 



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