mother's body, or separately in an egg, the heart--which he regards as
the starting-point and centre of the organism--must appear first. Once
the heart is formed the other organs arise, the internal ones before
the external, the upper (those above the diaphragm) before the lower
(or those beneath the diaphragm). The brain is formed at an early
stage, and the eyes grow out of it. These observations are quite
correct. And, if we try to form some idea from these data of
Aristotle's general conception of the embryonic process, we find a dim
prevision of the theory which Wolff showed 2000 years afterwards to be
the correct view. It is significant, for instance, that Aristotle
denied the eternity of the individual in any respect. He said that the
species or genus, the group of similar individuals, might be eternal,
but the individual itself is temporary. It comes into being in the act
of procreation, and passes away at death.

During the 2000 years after Aristotle no progress whatever was made in
general zoology, or in embryology in particular. People were content
to read, copy, translate, and comment on Aristotle. Scarcely a single
independent effort at research was made in the whole of the period.
During the Middle Ages the spread of strong religious beliefs put
formidable obstacles in the way of independent scientific
investigation. There was no question of resuming the advance of
biology. Even when human anatomy began to stir itself once more in the
sixteenth century, and independent research was resumed into the
structure of the developed body, anatomists did not dare to extend
their inquiries to the unformed body, the embryo, and its development.
There were many reasons for the prevailing horror of such studies. It
is natural enough, when we remember that a Bull of Boniface VIII
excommunicated every man who ventured to dissect a human corpse. If
the dissection of a developed body were a crime to be thus punished,