A fundamental work on embryology

WOLFF, Caspar Friedrich.

Theoria generationis... editio nova, aucta et emendata.

Halle: typis et sumtu Io. Christ. Hendeli, 1774.

2nd Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Item #002369

8vo (200 x 120 mm). lxiv, 231 [1] pp. (errata on last page). Signatures: a-d⁸ A-O⁸ P⁴, 148 leaves. 2 engraved plates, numbered Tab I-II, signed 'Auctor ad. nat. del' (bound as throwouts on full blank leaves at the end). 19th century cardboards (extremities worn), spine with paper label titled in script. Paper little age-toned, very minor occasional spotting. Provenance: Early signature P. Wagner on free endpaper; Walter Pagel library. A fine, clean and unmarked copy. ----

Wellcome V, p. 460 ; Blake p. 494 ; Waller 11038; Norman 2257 (1st ed.); Garrison-Morton 470 (1st ed.) - Second edition (first 1759). "Wolff observed in great detail the early processes of embryonic differentiation. He disposed of the 'preformation' theory, substituting his view that the organs are formed from leaf-like (blastodermic) layers" (Garrison-M.).
A fundamental work on embryology ... in which he refuted the theory of preformation and put forward a theory of epigenesis which laid the foundations of the germ-layer theory of Baer and Pander. He demonstrated the truth of his theory with detailed microscopic observations on developing plant and chick embryos. In the latter he followed the development of the heart and blood vessels. "Wolff's fundamental achievement was the refutation of the theory of preformation, which considered the development of an organism to be simply the expansion of an invisible, transparent, fully formed embryo" (D.S.B. XV, p. 524).
This edition adds a foreword dated 4 November 1773 , a long 'Praemonenda de theoria generationis' and an index replying to criticisms (pp. xi-lxiv), but omits the 'Expositio et ratio instituti' and 'Conspectus dissertationis' in the first edition (1759, pp. 5-11). (R. Gaskell, Books from the Library of Walter Pagel, Pt. II, 192).

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