This quick and incomplete biographical account 

 indicates a rich life. It draws a portrait of a man who was 

 capable of untiring and selfless activity in his scientific 

 interests, together with a tendency towards wandering. He 

 was transferred as a child from Brittany to distant Petersburg. 

 From there in his youth, with an already developed scientific 

 interest, he travelled to Revel. As an adult he went to Germany 

 where he moved from one university city to another: Wiirzburg, 

 Gottingen, Jena, and again Gtfttingen. Later he was in Paris 

 and, at the end, in Guadaloupe, on the shores of America. 

 This biography could be material for an interesting story, 

 but it does not give more than a picture of the life of a 

 wonderful, independent investigator. Yet in 1836 Baer noted, 

 in comparing Tredern's life story with the fate of the 

 mysterious foundling Kaspar Hauser, that his dissertation 

 was as amazing as the author himself. "I would have doubted," 

 wrote Baer, "the existence of this dissertation if it were 

 not directly in front of me." 



Tredern's dissertation finds a place in the history of 

 embryology in Russia, despite the fact that the author was not 

 a Russian, was not born in Russia, and lived there only six 

 years. There are two reasons for this. First, while living in 

 Petersburg, Tredern developed a deep interest in the problems 

 of comparative anatomy, and especially embryology, which he 

 worked on first at Revel, and then in Germany. It is hard to 

 believe that there was a source for this interest other than 

 the work of K. F. Wolff, who had died one year prior to 

 Tredern's arrival in Russia. Especially in Petersburg, Tredern 

 could have been acquainted with Wolff's classical work, which 

 had elucidated the embryonic development of the chick 

 intestines, and he might have found in this work the impulse 

 for similar study. 



The second reason for listing Tredern among Russian 

 embryologists is the fact that he considered himself as 

 such. The title page of his dissertation clearly identifies 

 the author as "L. S. Tredern, Estonia — Rossus." After losing 

 his motherland, Tredern obviously considered Russia his 

 country, the place where he successfully started his investi- 

 gations. It is highly probable that his designation of 

 national affiliation in the dissertation implied an intention 

 to return to Russia. It has been explained why this intention 

 was not accomplished. 



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