especially interested. In the town of Wasserburg (Ed.: on 

 one of his botanical expeditions in the Alps) Baer met the 

 naturalists Hoppe and Martius; they advised him to go to 

 Wiirzburg, to Do 1 linger. 



When he reached Wiirzburg, Baer was depressed to learn 

 that Db'l linger would not teach comparative anatomy in that 

 autum semester of 1815. Dollinger, noticing the young man's 

 depression, said to him: "Why do you want lectures? Bring 

 some animal and dissect it, and another, and study their 

 structure." Next morning Baer appeared in the laboratory 

 with leeches bought from the pharmacy, and under Dol linger' s 

 supervision he started studying their anatomy. After that, 

 he explored other invertebrates and read the monographic 

 literature. Baer later remembered with gratitude Dollinger' s 

 assistance at the first stages of his independent studies. 2 

 In fact, in 1815 Dollinger had directed Baer's interest to 

 embryology, although the circumstances were such that Baer's 

 studies of the history of evolution came later on and were 

 done entirely independently. 



Besides working with Dollinger, Baer visited the 

 obstetrical clinic of Siebold and listened to the course 

 of Professor Wagner "which the students called Naturphilosophie, 

 because all general ideas were considered Naturphilosophie and 

 depended on a less solid basis," Baer wrote ironically in his 

 memoirs. 3 "i was very curious," he continued, 



to follow the systematic work of Schelling's 

 philosophy; one heard about Naturphilosophie 

 everywhere and found it referred to in many books, 

 without being able to understand it if one did 

 study Schelling's systematically. I therefore 

 registered with Wagner, although Dollinger had 

 told me that I would not find too much there. 

 Actually, I found a high-level, wonderful schema 

 for all things and all relationships, to the 

 extent that at the beginning I was attracted by 

 its novelty. Soon, however, it seemed so empty 



2. Baer, NACHRICHTEN, p. 227 (193) (168). 



3. Ibid., p. 232 (182) (170). 



277 



