show many dilettantes unconditionally believing in the 

 possibility of transmutation and inclined to believe that 

 the nonrecognition of ascidians as ancestors of man is 

 attributable to sheer vanity" (p. 35) . 



The source of all his interpretations which were 

 basically erroneous was Baer's view of the theory of evolu- 

 tion, in particular in relation to Darwinism. The discussion 

 of Baer's views on evolution is beyond the scope of the 

 present book. They did not appear in the literature; 

 however, they have not been investigated sufficiently. But 

 here it can be mentioned that Baer considered the evolutionary 

 development of the organic world to be without doubt, but 

 with known limits, having their sources in the theory of 

 types established by him and Cuvier. 



Stating the presence of transitional forms between the 

 systematic groups within each of the four types, which 

 testifies to the community of origin of all representatives 

 of the type, Baer doubted that the signs of one type could 

 be seen in the development of another type (119) . 



Proceeding from this belief, Baer could not imagine that 

 the tunicates, not having in the adult condition the general 

 typical signs of the vertebrates, could show at any stage of 

 development the characteristics of this type. From here there 

 was a persistent striving from his side to give Kovalevsky's 

 discovery this explanation, which did not stand in conflict 

 with the theory of types. 



Being considered the founder of embryological science, 

 Baer did not leave behind him what could be called a school, 

 In Konigsberg there were some young people who performed 

 under his guidance dissertations on teratology, touching to 

 some extent upon the history of development (120) . One 

 Konigsberg student of Baer's, A. E. Grube (1812-1886), was 

 later recommended by him to the Department of Zoology in 

 Dorpat University. Grube published many works on zoology 

 and comparative zoology; in addition he mainly studied 

 annelids. 



483 



