[13] *Gesammelte Abhandlungen*, Leipzig, 1895. Most important
theoretical papers:--*Zeitschr. Biolog.* 21, 1885; *Die
Entwickelungsmechanik der Organismen*, Wien, 1890; *Vorträge und
Aufsätze über Entwickelungsmechanik*, Heft i., Leipzig, 1905.
I cannot let this occasion pass without emphasising in the most decided
manner how highly in my opinion Roux’s services to the systematic
exploration of morphogenesis must be esteemed. I feel the more obliged
to do so, because later on I shall have to contradict not only many
of his positive statements but also most of his theoretical views. He
himself has lately given up much of what he most strongly advocated only
ten years ago. But Roux’s place in the history of biological science can
never be altered, let science take what path it will.
It is not the place here to develop the logic of experiment; least of
all is it necessary in the country of John Stuart Mill. All of you know
that experiment, by its method of isolating the single constituents
of complicated phenomena, is the principal aid in the discovery of
so-called causal relations. Let us try then to see what causal
relations Wilhelm Roux established with the aid of morphogenetic
experiment.
THE WORK OF WILHELM ROUX
We know already that an hypothesis about the foundation of individual
development was his starting-point. Like Weismann he supposed that
there exists a very complicated structure in the germ, and that nuclear
division leads to the disintegration of that structure. He next tried to
bring forward what might be called a number of indicia supporting his
view.
A close relation had been found to exist in many cases between the
direction of the first cleavage furrows of the germ and the direction
of the chief planes of symmetry in the adult: the first cleavage, for
instance, very often corresponds to the median plane, or stands at right
angles to it. And in other instances, such as have been worked out into
the doctrine of so-called “cell-lineages,” typical cleavage cells were
found to correspond to typical organs. Was not that a strong support
for a theory which regarded cellular division as the principal means
of differentiation? It is true, the close relations between cleavage
and symmetry did not exist in every case, but then there had always
happened some specific experimental disturbances, *e.g.* influences of
an abnormal direction of gravity on account of a turning over of the
egg, and it was easy to reconcile such cases with the generally accepted
theory on the assumption of what was called “anachronism” of cleavage.
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