Text-book of the embryology of man and mammals / by Oscar Hertwig ; translated from the third German edition by Edward L. Mark.

Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Text-book of the embryology of man and mammals / by Oscar Hertwig ; translated from the third German edition by Edward L. Mark. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    12/704 (page 8)
    TO THE FIRST EDITION. Die Entwickelungsgescliichte ist der wahre Lichttrager fiir Untersuchungen iiber organische Kbrper.—C. E. v. Baeb, Ueber Entwickelungsgeschichte der Thiere (Bd. I., S. 231). The Embryology of Animals, although one of the youngest shoots of morphological research, has, nevertheless, grown up in the course of sixty years, along with the cell-doctrine and that of the tissues, to a vigorous and stately tree. The comprehension of the structure of organisms has been extended in a high degree by nvimerous develop- mental investigations. The study of the human body has also derived great advantage from the same. In the newer anatomical text- books (Gegenbaur, Schwalbe) Embryology is receivmg more and more attention in the descrij)tion of the separate systems of organs. To what extent many things may be more clearly and attractively described in this manner is best shown by a comparison of the des- criptions of brain, eye, heart, etc., in the older and the more recent anatomical text-books. Although it is generally recognised that Embryology constitutes a foundation-stone of our comprehension of organic forms, neverthe- less the attention which its importance warrants is not yet given to it; it is especially true that it has not become as extensively as it should be a component of well-rounded medical and natui-al-history instruction, to which it is indispensable. The cause of this is perhaj)s in part to be sought in the fact that in student-circles the study of Embryology is often held to be especially difficult and a comprehension of it to be laborious. And thus many do not venture into this apparently obscure realm. But ought the development of an organism to be really more difficult to comprehend than the complicated finished structure ? To a certain extent this was the case at a time when the most divergent and contradictory opinions prevailed concerning many of the most important processes of development, such as the formation of the germ-layer.s, the protovertebrte, etc., Avhich the lecturer had to