Carl Gegenbaur

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Carl Gegenbaur

Carl Gegenbaur (born August 21, 1826 in Würzburg , † June 14, 1903 in Heidelberg ) was a German physician, anatomist, zoologist and physiologist. He was one of the most important vertebrate morphologists of the 19th century and one of the fathers of evolutionary morphology , a modern term used by Walter J. Bock and Dwight Davis (1908–1965). Its official zoological author's abbreviation is "Gegenbaur".

Life

Carl Gegenbaur was the son of the judicial officer Franz Joseph Gegenbaur (1792–1872) and his wife Elisabeth Karoline (1800–1866), b. Roth (Carl's uncle, Joseph Roth, was a landscape and architecture painter who was born in Miltenberg in 1807 and died on August 2, 1868 in Würzburg). Four of his seven siblings died very young; his brother, who was three years younger than him, was only 25 years old and his sister, who was 13 years younger than him, was 38 years old. Gegenbaur grew up for a while in Arnstein , where he became acquainted with the priest, librarian and later Bavarian MP Anton Ruland , a friend of the family. In 1838 Gegenbaur attended the Latin school and from 1838 to 1845 the grammar school in Würzburg . Even when he was still at school, he conducted nature studies in the vicinity of Würzburg and with relatives in the Odenwald ( Amorbach ). He continued to deal with plants, animals, rocks, put on collections, made drawings and carried out the first animal sections.

In the winter semester of 1845/46 the 19-year-old Gegenbaur began studying medicine and natural sciences at the University of Würzburg. The course began after a Biennium philosophicum , which was prescribed by Gegenbaur in three instead of four semesters , which was then prescribed in Würzburg and which was supposed to provide a general foundation in philosophy and history. He was a student a. a. by Albert Kölliker (1817–1905), Rudolf Virchow (1821–1902), Heinrich Müller (1820–1864) and Franz von Leydig (1821–1908), who worked in Würzburg at the time.

“In the same year 1847 a renewal of the medical faculty began with the appointment of Albert Kölliker from Zurich, through which an important change in the direction of progress came about for me too. Kölliker was appointed to physiology, but also read comparative anatomy, histology and developmental history. I was a very keen student, with my friend Nicolaus Friedreich , who was already known to me from Weissenburg. With the exception of the Julius Hospital, the conditions at the university at that time were almost everywhere only beginning. For everything new in the classroom, the locale first had to be procured, such as chemistry, microscopic examinations and the like. am, emergency aid everywhere. Kölliker lectured on comparative anatomy in a room that belonged to the Animal Medicine School at the eastern end of the city. "

On April 16, 1851 Gegenbaur was promoted to Dr. med. doctorate - based on his inaugural dissertation on De limacis evolutione , a disputatio publico with eleven theses put forward for defense and a quaestio doctorate, a lecture that the doctoral candidate had to give in addition to defending the theses .

"Kölliker appeared as an opponent, not with regard to the theses, some of which were very vulnerable, but against the Quaestio doctoral diary itself. The Latin that was required for the doctorate a short time before had just been abolished in Würzburg, as I rightly believe because Science also demands freedom for the representation of which freedom is more reliably achieved in the mother tongue. "

After receiving his doctorate, he went on a study trip from northern Bavaria via Saxony (Leipzig, Dresden) to Berlin in 1851. His visit here was primarily for the anatomist and physiologist Johannes Müller as the most important representative of his science. Gegenbaur followed his suggestion to familiarize himself with the marine fauna around Heligoland through his own experience.

The vacation time taken as a “research trip” reduced his internship at the Juliusspital in Würzburg from 1850 to 1852 to one and a half years.

“The visit to the clinic in the Juliushospitale opened up a meaningful new path for me; Freund Friedreich was an assistant doctor to Hofrat Carl Friedrich von Marcus (1802–1862), the director of the internal clinic. He asked me to succeed because a similar position would be available very soon. "

“I became the third assistant doctor to Hofrath Marcus and was now on a free ward in relation to a small intake. First of all, the mentally ill in the two transverse buildings of the Julius Hospital were under my care, in very sad facilities that have probably not existed for a long time. Gradually I was assigned to other departments. "

In 1852 Gegenbaur was able to join Albert Kölliker and Heinrich Müller, who had traveled to southern Italy and Sicily ( Messina ). a. begin research in comparative anatomy , especially in marine animals. His stay in Sicily, but above all his return trip from Italy to Würzburg - he visited a. a. the cities of Palermo, Naples, Rome, Florence and Padua, which were also culturally and historically very interested in him - was now more than a year ago. Here his scientific interest lay primarily in marine invertebrates , it was only after the 1850s that he turned his attention primarily to vertebrates. At the end of the semester 1853/1854, he completed his habilitation in Würzburg for anatomy and physiology. His habilitation thesis was entitled On the Study of Generational Change and the Reproduction of Medusa and Polyps and served at the same time to obtain the venia docendi at the University of Würzburg. In the coming summer semester, I started working as a private lecturer for only three semesters. In 1855 he became an associate professor for zoology in Jena . In 1857 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina .

From 1855, when he got a call to Jena, he read from the winter of 1855 to 1856 first as an associate professor on zoology. After the death of Emil Huschke (1797-1858) he was initially full professor of anatomy and zoology from 1858, later zoology was separated and the chair was handed over to his friend Ernst Haeckel , who was appointed associate professor in Jena from 1862 . He had completed his habilitation in this subject a year earlier. He intensively promoted Ernst Haeckel's call to Jena . Gegenbaur remained a full professor of anatomy. Gegenbaur had a very good relationship with Emil Huschke, so he worked for three years from 1855 to 1858 as an associate professor under Huschke's aegis. His lectures included zoology, comparative anatomy, general anatomy including histology and embryonic development history; He also held zootomic and histological exercises and microscopic demonstrations with his students .

In 1873 he was appointed full professor of anatomy and comparative anatomy in Heidelberg, where he succeeded Philipp Friedrich Arnold (1803-1890). Gegenbaur expanded the anatomical collection to include human specimens and zoological objects such as fish, reptiles, birds and mammals in order to be able to design his courses effectively and in a modern way. On these objects, Gegenbauer taught not only anatomy, but also the "development history of the human body", which is close to his heart. In 1891 he was elected a foreign member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences , and in 1896 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . He retired in Heidelberg in 1900 .

The teaching body Ruperto Carola zu Heidelberg in the year 500 of its existence (1886), a : Philipp Friedrich Arnold , b : Friedrich Wilhelm Hermann Delffs , c : Carl Gegenbaur, d : Friedrich Wilhelm Kühne

Gegenbaur had a strong influence on his surroundings; His “distant” writing style is very striking. His colleagues included Matthias Jacob Schleiden , Emil Huschke , Ernst Haeckel, Hermann Klaatsch (1863-1916), and his students (often together with Haeckel) Max Fürbringer , Richard Hertwig , Oscar Hertwig , Emil Rosenberg (1842-1925) , Ambrosius Arnold Willem Hubrecht , Johan Erik Vesti Boas (1855–1935), Hans Friedrich Gadow , Max Sagemehl , Nikolaus Goronowitsch , Hanson Kelly Corning (1861–1951), Carl Röse and Simon Paulli .

Gegenbaur, married by Anton Ruland, was first married to Anna Margaretha Emma Dürig, geb. Strictly married. Their daughter Emma was born on July 21, 1864 in Jena. On August 1, 1864 (according to a letter from Carl Gegenbaur to Anton Ruland written in Jena), Carl Gegenbaur's wife Emma died of childbed fever at 5:30 p.m. In his second marriage he married Ida Arnold (born May 14, 1831 in Heidelberg), the daughter of his predecessor at the University of Heidelberg, Friedrich Arnold , and had three children with her. His second daughter Elisabeth Gegenbaur (1871–1947) was a well-known watercolor painter who u. a. worked in Hohenschäftlarn, Buchen (Odenwald) and Bühl near Günzburg.

From: Principles of Comparative Anatomy. 2nd Edition. 1870

Honors

Gegenbaur was a member of several scientific academies. In 1901 he received the Cothenius Medal of the Leopoldina . After his death, a monument was erected to “the anatomist Karl Gegenbaur” in Heidelberg, which shows his bust on a simple base. It was unveiled in a ceremony on May 12, 1906 in the Anatomical Institute of Heidelberg University. The bust was created by Carl Seffner .

In Würzburg a street is named after Gegenbaur.

Scientific achievement

Carl Gegenbaur was a strong proponent of Charles Darwin's (1809–1882) theory of evolution ( descent theory ). He founded a comparative-morphological school that can be followed well into the 20th century. His ideas are still immanent even in today's evolutionary developmental biology debate .

He is the founder of the “Morphological Yearbook” and author of the textbook “Comparative Anatomy of the Vertebrates with Consideration of the Invertebrates” (from 1898). Gegenbaur is an important figure in comparative anatomy . In comparative anatomy, the body characteristics of the different species or taxa are examined for their similarities. The more similar the species are, the closer they are to each other. The term homology is important here : In biological systematics and comparative anatomy, it is understood to mean the fundamental correspondence of organs, organ systems, body structures, but also physiological processes of two taxa. It determines the degree of their common evolutionary origin and their common phylogenetic "ancestors". Gegenbaur distinguished between general and special homology.

“General homology, if an organ is related to a category of organs, or if an individual organ compared with it is only to be regarded as a representative of such a category. The categories will then always consist of organs or parts present several times in the body. If we compare the body segments of a jointed animal, the vertebrae, the limbs of an animal, etc., we establish general homologies. These dissolve again into subsections, according to the type of organ category that was used for the comparison. "

"Special homology. Homology in the strict sense. We use this to denote the relationship between two organs of the same origin, which thus emerged from the same system. "

The "head problem"

Among his many specialist papers, those on the comparative anatomy of vertebrates are most important, and here in particular his theory on skull and limb development . Carl Gegenbaur developed the Goethe - Oken " vertebral theory of the skull " to the "segment theory of the vertebrate head" and put forward a theory on the origin of the tetrapod extremities (he derives it - wrongly - from the gill arch ).

Comparison of two skulls. The skull of a monitor lizard and a crocodile ; homologous structures are in the same color

Gegenbaur saw the head as a continuation of the segmented (or metameric ) trunk. In his view, the skeletal elements of the gill arch were series homologs ( serial homologies ) with the ribs, i.e. the cranial nerves ( branchiomerie ) homologous with the spinal nerves . This vertebral part - coming from the spine - should only form the lower (occipital) section of the skull. The prevertebral part, which was a protective capsule surrounding the higher nerve structures, should be a primarily undivided (non-segmental) section. Gegenbaur placed the border between these two sections of the skull just below the optic foramen . He chose sharks as his main model animals, and many of his general statements are based on his comparative studies of the cartilaginous fish, such as the selachian .

Relationship between Carl Gegenbaur and Ernst Haeckel

Ernst Haeckel first began studying medicine in Berlin in 1852 and moved to Würzburg in the same year. At the end of the winter semester 1855/56 he became an assistant doctor at the pathological-anatomical institute under Rudolf Virchow (1821–1902). The latter soon left Würzburg to answer a call to Berlin. Ernst Haeckel continued his work and dissertation with Albert von Kölliker. During this time he met Carl Gegenbaur. Both were linked by an almost lifelong friendship, which was only severely disturbed in 1900 by the popularization of Haeckel's Die Weltträthsel .

Taxa named after Gegenbaur

Selected works

  • Experienced and strived for. Engelmann, Leipzig 1901.
  • Studies on the comparative anatomy of the spine in amphibians and reptiles. Leipzig 1862.
  • About the skeleton of the vertebrate limbs in general and the hind limbs of Selachians in particular. In: Jenaische Z. Med. Naturwiss. 5, 1870, pp. 397-447.
  • About the head nerves of Hexanchus and their relationship to the "vertebral theory of the skull". In: Jenaische Z. Med. Naturwiss. 6, 1871, pp. 497-559.
  • Studies on the comparative anatomy of vertebrates. 3rd booklet: The head skeleton of the Selachians, as a basis for assessing the genesis of the head skeleton of the vertebrate animals. Published by Wilhelm Engelmann, Leipzig 1972.
  • About the Aripterygium. In: Jenaische Z. Med. Naturwiss. 7, 1872, pp. 131-141.
  • The position and importance of morphology. In: Morphol. Jahrb. 1, 1876, pp. 1-19.
  • Comparative anatomy plan. Leipzig 1874; 2nd edition, ibid. 1878.
  • Human anatomy textbook. Leipzig 1883.
  • The metamerism of the head and the vortex theory of the head skeleton, considered and examined in the light of recent studies. In: Morphol. Jahrb. 13, 1888, pp. 1–114.
  • Ontogeny and anatomy, viewed in their interrelationships. In: Morphol. Jahrb. 15, 1889, pp. 1-9.
  • The metamerism of the head and the vortex theory of the head skeleton considered and examined in the light of recent studies. In: Morphol. Year XIII, 1888.
  • Comparative anatomy of the vertebrates with consideration of the invertebrates. 2 volumes, Leipzig 1898–1901.
  • Experienced and strived for. Leipzig 1901 (autobiography).

further reading

  • WJ Bock: Preadaptation and Multiple Evolutionary Pathways. In: evolution. 13, 1959, pp. 194-211.
  • DD Davis: The Proper Goal of Comparative Anatomy. In: RD Purchon (Ed.): Proceedings of the Centenary and Bicentenary Congress of Biology, Singapore, December 2-9, 1958. University of Malaya Press, Singapore 1960, pp. 44-50.
  • Max Fürbringer: Carl Gegenbaur. In: Heidelberg professors from the nineteenth century. Festschrift of the university for the centenary celebration of its renewal by Karl Friedrich. Volume 2, 1903, pp. 389-466.
  • M. Fürbringer: Carl Gegenbaur. In: Anatomischer Anzeiger 23, 1903, pp. 589–608.
  • M. Fürbringer: Karl Gegenbauer. In: Baden biographies . VI. Part. Winter, Heidelberg 1935, pp. 22–31 (digitized version )
  • Reinhard Hildebrand: Rudolf Albert von Koelliker and his circle. In: Würzburg medical history reports. Volume 3, 1985, pp. 127-151, here: p. 134.
  • Uwe Hoßfeld , L. Olsson, O. Breidbach (Eds.): Carl Gegenbaur and Evolutionary Morphology. In: Theory in Biosciences. 2-3, 2003, pp. 106-302.
  • Wilhelm Katner:  Gegenbaur, Carl. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 6, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1964, ISBN 3-428-00187-7 , pp. 130 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Manfred D. Laubichler: Carl Gegenbaur (1826-1903): Integrating comparative anatomy and embryology. In: Journal of Experimental Zoology Part B: Molecular and Developmental Evolution. 1, 2003, pp. 23-31.
  • Christian Mitgutsch: On Carl Gegenbaur's theory on head metamerism and the selection of taxa for comparisons. In: Theory in Biosciences. 2-3, 2003, pp. 204-229.
  • LK Nyhart: Biology Takes Form. Animal Morphology and the German Universities, 1800-1900. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago / London 1995.
  • LK Nyhart: The importance of the “Gegenbaur school” for German morphology. In: Theory in biosciences. 2-3, 2003, pp. 162-173.
  • L. Plate: Jena professors as supporters of the theory of descent. In: Verh. Dtsch. Zool. Ges. 30, 1925, pp. 14-45.
  • Thomas Sauer, Ralf Vollmuth : Letters from members of the Würzburg medical faculty in the estate of Anton Ruland. Sources on the history of medicine in the 19th century with short biographies. In: Würzburg medical history reports. Volume 9, 1991, pp. 135-206, here: pp. 151-153.
  • Frida von Uslar-Gleichen, Ernst Haeckel: The unsolved world riddle. Letters and Diaries 1898–1903. 3 volumes, Wallstein Verlag.

Web links

Commons : Karl Gegenbaur  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Carl Gegenbaur  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Biography of G. Wagner, issue 1-1917. No. 19 ( PDF )
  2. ↑ C. Gegenbaur: Experienced and strived for . Engelmann, Leipzig 1901.
  3. ↑ University of Würzburg building after expansion for medicine and natural sciences 1871 to 1887 uniarchiv.uni-wuerzburg.de  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.uniarchiv.uni-wuerzburg.de  
  4. ↑ C. Gegenbaur: Experienced and strived for . Engelmann, Leipzig 1901, p. 46.
  5. ↑ C. Gegenbaur: Experienced and strived for . Engelmann, Leipzig 1901, p. 52.
  6. ↑ juliusspital.de ( Memento from October 14, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ↑ C. Gegenbaur: Experienced and strived for . Engelmann, Leipzig 1901, p. 48.
  8. ↑ C. Gegenbaur: Experienced and strived for . Engelmann, Leipzig 1901, p. 49.
  9. ↑ William Katner:  Gegenbaur, Carl. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 6, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1964, ISBN 3-428-00187-7 , pp. 130 f. ( Digitized version ).
  10. ^ Member entry of Carl Gegenbaur at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on October 30, 2017.
  11. ^ Emil Huschke: Schaedel, brain and soul of man and animals: according to age, sex and race; presented according to new methods and studies . Jena 1854.
  12. ↑ Sara Doll: Carl Gegenbaur - Against the Heidelberger Strom , in: Sara Doll, Joachim Kirsch and Wolfgang U. Eckart (eds.): When death serves life - The human being as teaching aid , Springer Germany 2017, pp. 44-46 . doi : 10.1007 / 978-3-662-52674-3
  13. ↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 90.
  14. ↑ Thomas Sauer, Ralf Vollmuth : Letters from members of the Würzburg Medical Faculty in the estate of Anton Ruland. Sources on the history of medicine in the 19th century with short biographies. In: Würzburg medical history reports. Volume 9, 1991, pp. 135-206, here: pp. 151-153; here: p. 153.
  15. ↑ s197410804.online.de
  16. ↑ Documentation on the family situation in Heidelberg archive.org ( DjVu )
  17. ↑ Mario A. Di Gegorio: Under Darwin's Flag: Ernst Haeckel, Carl Gegenbaur and Evolutionary Morphology. In: Eve-Marie Gegenbaur (Ed.): Charles Darwin and its effect. Suhrkamp-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main (2009), stw1903, ISBN 978-3-518-29503-8 , pp. 80-110.
  18. ↑ M. Laubichler u. a .: Ontogeny, Anatomy, and the problem of Homology: Carl Gegenbaur and the American Tradition of Cell Lineage Studies. In: Theory Biosci. 122, 2003, pp. 194-203.
  19. ↑ C. Gegenbaur: Fundamentals of comparative anatomy . Wilhelm Engelmann, Leipzig 1870, pp. 79–80.
  20. ↑ C. Gegenbaur: Comparative anatomy of the vertebrates with consideration of the invertebrates . Wilhelm Engelmann, Leipzig 1898.
personal data
SURNAME Gegenbaur, Carl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gegenbaur, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German doctor, zoologist and evolutionary biologist
DATE OF BIRTH August 21, 1826
PLACE OF BIRTH Wurzburg
DATE OF DEATH June 14, 1903
Place of death Heidelberg