imperfect. From the characteristics of preformation, Baer 

 drew his listeners' attention to the fact that, in spite of 

 the slowly progressing accumulation of facts in the history 

 of development and the great -difficulties in extracting such 

 facts, the accomplishments of science are highly significant. 

 Observations show the incorrectness of the aforementioned 

 ideas about reproduction and development. Baer expressed 

 his belief that already there was enough data to recognize 

 nature's methods for forming new organisms. The new inves- 

 tigations of the history of development, Baer said, were 

 still poorly known, and the old ones obscured by precon- 

 ceived ideas; therefore it is necessary to present the facts 

 from the history of development. 



Baer considered his task as giving the combined work 

 of the history of reproduction and development and showing 

 that they, in one sense, are not preformed and, in another 

 sense, do not develop as was usually thought, all at once 

 from a formless mass. 



Baer noted in this case that he recognized well the 

 difficulty of talking about an object still so alien to 

 contemporary scholastic and university education. He feared 

 that he would not be understood on the level that he wished, 

 because his listeners had more experience with hypotheses 

 rather than with facts. Knowing how the classical trend of 

 education had fenced German students off from studying the 

 phenomena of nature, Baer, not without irony, said that he 

 even assumed the structure of the bird's egg to be unknown 

 to his listeners. 



For among my respectful listeners there are 

 probably few who do not know that the cackle 

 of geese once saved the Capitol. With the 

 exception of medical persons, there are 

 probably few who are aware of the contents 

 of a goose egg, and a qualified German teacher, 

 above all, would not know that poultry 

 lay eggs if he did not have it from Pliny or 

 Phaedrus. (II, If, 8). 



About birds' eggs, Baer continued, 



370 



