In a footnote Sechenov added: "Too late, I have learned 

 that Warnek and the famous botanist Tsenkovsky were among 

 the first Russian biologists who worked at that time with 

 the microscope." 



On Warnek' s socio-political opinions there is no 

 information. His statement against Eogdanov's book, based 

 on the principles of Darwin's evolutionary study, was 

 published in a government journal; objectively, it could 

 have played a reactionary role. The mutual relations of 

 Warnek with the students creates the suspicion of the 

 possibility that the rising conflict was of a political 

 nature. Concerning Warnek 's "political orientation," it 

 can be seen that he was later assigned responsible posts 

 in the Department of Education. A search of the archival 

 material may throw light on this subject. 



For a characterization of Warnek' s scientific work and 

 world view, it is necessary to gain acquaintance with the 

 contents of his basic work, "On the Formation and Development 

 of the F:mbryo in the Gastropodan Molluscs. "^ As an epigraph 

 to this work Warnek selected the words of Reii: "The phenomena 

 of individual life are the necessary result of formation and 

 merging." This idea, as can be seen from the final chapter 

 of this work, Warnek interpreted materialistically. Warnek 

 himself also considered that only in the definite mixing of 

 substances in definite spatial position [form) can the 

 solution of vital phenomena be sought. Science, in his 

 opinion, is not in need of additional idealistic assumptions. 



As it is seen from the introduction of his work, Warnek 

 considered his principal task to be the explanation of how 

 the yolk, i.e. ^substances of the ovum, are transformed into 

 tissue of the embryo and what conditions this transformation. 

 The solution to this question, in Warnek' s opinion, is possible 

 only through a thorough investigation of the processes of 

 development, and that is why he also outlined the following 

 vast program. First of all, Warnek suggested, it is necessary 

 to study the reproduction of molluscs, either hermaphrodites 

 or separate sexes. For this aim the following must be studied: 

 1) structure of male and female sexual organs; 2) origin of 



29. See footnote 22 of this chapter 



542 



