Consequently, speculative information, which constitutes 

 philosophy, is possible only in the face of scientific 

 experimental information. It is clear now that the 

 sciences could exist without philosophy and not be 

 complete nonsense, but philosophy without science is 

 impossible. If one seeks to philosophize without 

 knowing science, his wisdom will be delirium, 

 shameful for the intellect, harmful for science, 

 (pp. 17 - 18) 



Despite the reasonable tone of these discussions, it must be 

 acknowledged that M. G. Pavlov could not overcome the 

 idealistic ideas that he had met in his youth. 



The effect of Naturphilosophie was also shown in the 

 opinions of those Russian zoologists and physicians interested 

 in the development of the internal and external human 

 parasites. This subject has an acknowledged relation to 

 embryology, because the authors writing about the spontaneous 

 development of parasitic forms also approached the phenomena 

 of development in all other living creatures. 



Studies about the spontaneous generation of parasites 

 spread in Germany, where it was supported by those authoritative 

 helminthologists, Rudolf and Bremser. From Germany this study 

 penetrated into Russia. Bremser' s book was translated into 

 Russian in 1839,44 accompanied by an article by J. Spassky 

 supporting the idea of arbitrary or undefined development of 

 parasites. Spassky himself, fifteen years prior to that, had 

 published a dissertation devoted to the parasitic helminths'^ 

 which also concentrated on their spontaneous generation. He 

 expressed his idea in the following theses: 



44. (Johann Gottfried] Bremser, ON THE HELMINTHS PRESENT 

 IN THE HUMAN BODY, OR A MANUAL FOR THE IDENTIFI- 

 CATION AND TREATMENT OF HELMINTHIC DISEASES. 

 Translated from the German. 1839. xxii + 384 pp. (49) 



45. Johannes Spassky, "Entozoologiae historiae progressus, et 

 status hodierni brevis expositio." St. Petersburg, 1824. 

 ii + 50 pp. 



175 



