correct view with a dictatorial "There is no such thing as evolution."
He even went on to say that religion was menaced by the new theory! It
is not surprising that the whole of the physiologists of the second
half of the eighteenth century submitted to the ruling of this
physiological pontiff, and attacked the theory of epigenesis as a
dangerous innovation. It was not until more than fifty years
afterwards that Wolff's work was appreciated. Only when Meckel
translated into German in 1812 another valuable work of Wolff's on The
Formation of the Alimentary Canal (written in 1768), and called
attention to its great importance, did people begin to think of him
once more; yet this obscure writer had evinced a profounder insight
into the nature of the living organism than any other scientist of the
eighteenth century.

Wolff's idea led to an appreciable advance over the whole field of
biology. There is such a vast number of new and important observations
and pregnant thoughts in his writings that we have only gradually
learned to appreciate them rightly in the course of the nineteenth
century. He opened up the true path for research in many directions.
In the first place, his theory of epigenesis gave us our first real
insight into the nature of embryonic development. He showed
convincingly that the development of every organism consists of a
series of NEW FORMATIONS, and that there is no trace whatever of the
complete form either in the ovum or the spermatozoon. On the contrary,
these are quite simple bodies, with a very different purport. The
embryo which is developed from them is also quite different, in its
internal arrangement and outer configuration, from the complete
organism. There is no trace whatever of preformation or in-folding of
organs. To-day we can scarcely call epigenesis a THEORY, because we
are convinced it is a fact, and can demonstrate it at any moment with