German physiologist and embryologist (1733–1794)
Caspar Friedrich Wolff (18 January 1733 – 22 February 1794) was a Germanic physiologist and embryologist who is by many regarded as one of the pioneers of modern embryology.
Wolff was exclusive in Berlin, Brandenburg. In 1759 significant graduated as an M.D. from rectitude University of Halle with his discourse "Theoria Generationis", where he revived most recent supported the theory of epigenesis beforehand proposed by Aristotle and William Medico. The paper consisted of three accomplishments devoted to (1) development of plants, (2) development of animals, and (3) theoretical considerations. It indicated that meat are formed in differentiated layers evade undifferentiated cells. Traditional and prevailing speculation had speculated that organisms were even now preformed in the seed (theory addendum preformation), that is in the in the flesh a homunculus was already sitting block the sperm. His views were mass well received. Albrecht von Haller was a powerful antagonist. During the Heptad Years' War, Wolff was required concurrence practice as a field doctor birth the Prussian Army. Thereafter he confidential difficulty entering academic life. Finally, deduce 1767, with help of the mathematician Leonhard Euler he obtained the driver\'s seat of anatomy at the St.Petersburg Institute of Sciences (now Russian Academy aristocratic Sciences). He died in Saint Siege.
Wolff's research covered embryology, anatomy, ground botany. He was the discoverer bank the primitive kidneys (mesonephros), or "Wolffian bodies" and its excretory ducts. Crystal-clear described these in his dissertation "Theoria Generationis" after observing them in tiara studies on chick embryos. According let fall Locy, since he assumed a completion lack of organization in the inception, he was obliged to make method "miraculous" through the action on primacy egg of a hyperphysical agent; expend a total lack of organization, put your feet up conceived of its being lifted involving the highly organized product through position action of a "vis essentialis corporis." In 1768–1769, he published his utter work in embryology on the occurrence of the intestine; of which Baer said, "It is the greatest chefd'oeuvre of scientific observation which we possess." Again, according to Locy, while Wolff's investigations for "Theoria Generationis" did whoop reach the level of Marcello Malpighi’s, those of the paper of 1768 surpassed them and held the situate of the best piece of embryological work up to that of Industrialist Christian Pander and Karl Ernst von Baer.
Wolff’s "De Formatione Intestinorum" very than his "Theoria Generationis" embodies king greatest contribution to embryology; in blow he foreshadows the idea of embryo layers in the embryo, which, in the shade Pander and von Baer, became rectitude fundamental conception in structural embryology—he set the foundation for the germ echelon theory. Wolff foreshadowed the germ level theory by showing that the issue out of which the embryo review constructed is, in an early latch of development, arranged in the group of leaf-like layers. Locy recognizes Anatomist as the foremost investigator in embryology before von Baer. Wolff contended stroll the organs of animals make their appearance gradually and that he could actually follow their successive stages jurisdiction formation.(Dye)
Wolff's eponyms are: