Later, Baer asked why the mention of processes which 

 serve purposes is met by naturalists with such distrust, 

 and whether there is any real basis for this distrust. In 

 order to answer this question, Baer turned to the history 

 of natural science. Man first sought to solve the most 

 common problems, and only later did he learn to open up 

 questions and pose them so that he could give concrete 

 answers. Thus, at the beginning, the ancient Greeks pro- 

 posed many hypotheses about the origin and existence of the 

 world. Only gradually did they begin to observe reality 

 and to meditate upon the processes of nature. They estab- 

 lished that in nature there are known powers or regularities 

 acting. The Romans added very little to that which had been 

 known by the Greeks, and gradually showed little inclination 

 to present new methods in the field of science. Meanwhile, 

 as other peoples of Europe emerged from the state of barbarism, 

 a characteristic religion spread which for a long time devoured 

 all spiritual inquiries. When this religion became dominant 

 in Byzantium and Rome, a powerful priesthood worried about 

 whether men in their scientific aspirations followed the 

 course outlined for them by the church. As a result of this, 

 for a long time in the natural sciences there was no notice- 

 able progress. The discovery of America and of previously 

 unknown living beings, the discovery of a sea route to India, 

 the ideological interpretations of the epoch of the Reforma- 

 tion, and, mainly, Copernicus' proof of the earth's rotation 

 around its axis and around the sun, regardless of the evidence 

 of vision — all this aided the powerful increase of scientific 

 interest and provoked the independence of ideas and their 

 critical relation to authority. 



However, the scientific struggle kept its medieval 

 character for a long time. Many absolutely groundless 

 statements were put forward; thus, in the structure of the 

 organism it was desirable first of all to see the intention 

 of the Creator. In accordance with the studies of the 

 Christian religion, seeing a spiritual beginning in all 

 activities, they searched for the acting power everywhere. 

 Even in the middle of the seventeenth century, Fabricius ab 

 Aquapendente, in a work illustrating the development of the 

 hen's egg, declared the existence of six forces upon which 

 the formation of the chick depends. However, in his actual 

 observation he committed very flagrant errors . From the 

 beginning of the sixteenth century, the study of anatomy 



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