To Pander belongs the immortal merit of extracting from 

 oblivion Wolff's outstanding investigations. Wolff's report 

 "On the Development of the Intestines" Pander understood 

 more correctly than Meckel had in his German translation. 

 Pander's controversy with Oken on intestinal formation had 

 great significance and affected Baer's later work in this 

 direction. Pander's schematic drawings showing the formation 

 and closing up of the amniotic folds and his work on the 

 vascular system are extremely close to Baer's corresponding 

 results published eleven years later. It deserves astonishment 

 that Baer, in his basic work "On the History of Development 

 of Animals," does not even mention Pander's article in ISIS 

 and its accompanying drawings. Knowing Baer's unusual 

 kindness and his efforts to protect Pander's priority, it 

 has to be assumed that he did not read it. That later on 

 he became acquainted with this work is clear from his 

 reference to the article in his autobiography (p. 302) . 



A comparison of the historical significance of Pander 

 and Baer could be expressed in the words of Cuvier, which 

 Baer quoted in his biography of the French naturalist: "I am 

 only a Preparator, said he (Cuvier) in one of his lectures. 

 Preparator is a predecessor to Raphael .... I am 

 collecting material for the future great anatomist, and if 

 this happens I want to be taken by him into his service 

 in order to make for him the preparatory work." Such a 

 Preparator was Pander for the great embryologist Baer. By 

 this, his place in the history of embryology is determined. 



273 



