Caspar friedrich wolff biography sample

German physiologist and embryologist (1733–1794)

Caspar Friedrich Wolff (18 January 1733 – 22 February 1794) was a German physiologist and embryologist who is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of modern embryology.

Life

Wolff was born in Berlin, Brandenburg. In 1759 he graduated as an M.D. from the University of Halle with his dissertation "Theoria Generationis", where he revived and supported the theory of epigenesis previously proposed by Aristotle and William Harvey. The paper consisted of three parts devoted to (1) development of plants, (2) development of animals, and (3) theoretical considerations. It indicated that organs are formed in differentiated layers from undifferentiated cells. Traditional and prevailing theory had speculated that organisms were already preformed in the seed (theory of preformation), that is in the human a homunculus was already sitting in the sperm. His views were not well received. Albrecht von Haller was a powerful antagonist. During the Seven Years' War, Wolff was required to practice as a field doctor in the Prussian Army. Thereafter he had difficulty entering academic life. Finally, in 1767, with help of the mathematician Leonhard Euler he obtained the chairmanship of anatomy at the St.Petersburg Academy of Sciences (now Russian Academy of Sciences). He died in Saint Petersburg.

Research

Wolff's research covered embryology, anatomy, and botany. He was the discoverer of the primitive kidneys (mesonephros), or "Wolffian bodies" and its excretory ducts. He described these in his dissertation "Theoria Generationis" after observing them in his studies on chick embryos. According to Locy, since he assumed a total lack of organization in the beginning, he was obliged to make development "miraculous" through the action on the egg of a hyperphysical agent; from a total lack of organization, he conceived of its being lifted to the highly organized product through the action of a "vis essent

Caspar Friedrich Wolff is most famous for his 1759 doctoral dissertation, Theoria Generationis, in which he described embryonic development in both plants and animals as a process involving layers of cells, thereby refuting the accepted theory of preformation—the idea that organisms develop as a result of the unfolding of form that is somehow present from the outset, as in a homunculus. This work generated a great deal of controversy and discussion at the time of its publication but was an integral move in the reemergence and acceptance of the theory of epigenesis.

Wolff was born in Berlin, Germany, on 18 January 1734 to Anna Sofia Stiebeler and Johann Wolff, a tailor. He studied medicine at the Collegium Medico-Chirurgicum in Berlin from 1753 to 1754 and then enrolled at the University of Halle, graduating in 1759 with his MD. The controversy created by his dissertation, with its assertions challenging the accepted view of preformationism, made it difficult for Wolff to find work. In particular, his hypothesis was opposed by Albrecht von Haller, a strong proponent of the theory of preformation. Wolff attempted to obtain a position at the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences with the help of Leonhard Euler, but was unsuccessful because many of the members of the Academy disagreed with the epigenetic contentions of his work. Wolff became a field surgeon for the Prussian army in 1761.

During his time in the military he gave some lectures at the Breslau Military Hospital on the subject of anatomy. He continued to seek a professorship in Berlin, attempting to obtain permission to lecture in 1762 while still in the army, and again as the Franco-Prussian War was ending, knowing that he would be losing his job at the military hospitals because they were closing. He was denied in both instances by the professors of the Collegium Medico-Chirurgicum. Because he had been denied one university professorship and foresaw more such denials in the futu

On January 18, 1734, GermanphysiologistCaspar Friedrich Wolffwas born. He is recognized as one of the founders of embryology. In Theoria Generationis (1759) he first wrote an epigenetic theory of development: that the organs of living things take shape gradually from non-specific tissue.

Caspar Friedrich Wolff – Youth and Education

Caspar Friedrich Wolff was born in Berlin in 1734 as the son of master tailor Johann Wolff and his wife Anna Sophie Wolff née Stiebeler. Almost nothing is known about his youth, only that in 1753 at the age of 19 he attended the Collegium medico-chirurgicum in Berlin, the military medical training centre of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Berlin. Here various full members of the Academy taught the students and offered courses in surgery, anatomy, microscopy, chemistry and botany. Among them were some of the best known researchers of the time, such as Peter Simon Pallas, Johann Friedrich Meckel, Johann Gottlieb Gleditsch, Johann Nathanael Lieberkühn and Johann Heinrich Pott. Before Wolff’s time as a student, Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis was the director of the academy, who was not only known for an expedition to Lapland to measure degrees at the North Pole, but also for his writings on the development of germs in animals.

Wolff and the Theoria Generationis

The scientist took part in several expeditions and researched on the inheritance of abnormities. He performed numerous observations and became famous through his work, which inspired the young Wolff. He finished his doctoral thesis ‘Theoria Generationis‘ in 1759 in Halle, Germany. In it, Wolff demonstrated the embryonic development of plants and animals through microscopic observations. This work became famous in the scientific community mostly for its incredibly accurate drawings. This masterpiece consists of three major parts. The first describes the development of small cells to compl

(b. Berlin, Germany, 18 January 1734; d. St. Petersburg, Russia [now Leningrad, U.S.S.R.], 22 February 1794)

biology.

Wolff was the son of Johann Wolff, a tailor who moved to Berlin in the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century, and Anna Sofia Stiebeler. He studied medicine at the Medical-Surgical College in Berlin (1753– 1754) and in 1755 enrolled at the University of Halle; his dissertation, Theoria generations (1759), was criticized by Haller and Bonnet. On behalf of the Prussian Academy of Sciences, Euler attempted unsuccessfully in 1760– 1761 to obtain for Wolff a post at the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. In 1761 Wolff became a field doctor in the Prussian army, which was then at war with Russia; and he also lectured in anatomy at the Breslau Military Hospital. His attempts in 1762 and 1764 to obtain permission to lecture in Berlin were opposed by the professors of the Medical-Surgical College, who had guild privileges to teach medicine.

After returning to Berlin in 1763, Wolf gave private lectures in anatomy, physiology, and medicine. The following year he restated his theory of generation and replied to Haller’s and Bonnet’s criticism in Theorie von der Generation further decreasing his chances of obtaining a professorship. In 1766 he accepted an invitation from the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, extended at Euler’s initiative, to join the department of anatomy. He traveled to Russia with his wife in May 1767 and later that year presented to the Academy “De formatione intesti-norum praecipue.” During the next twenty-seven years he published thirty-one memoirs in the Academy’s Proceedings, including several that were devoted to anatomical research on the muscles of the heart and on connective tissue. He paid special attention to the study of human monstrosities, which were collected in the Academy’s anatomical cabinet (which Wolff directed) of the Kunstkammer. Surviving manuscripts indicate that Wo