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.
Read more about this topic: Caspar Friedrich Wolff
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“Unto a life which I call natural I would gladly follow even a will-o’-the-wisp through bogs and sloughs unimaginable, but no moon nor firefly has shown me the causeway to it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“No Life can pompless pass away—
The lowliest career
To the same Pageant wends its way
As that exalted here—”
—Emily Dickinson (1830–1886)
“The end of a life is always vivifying.”
—Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)