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GEGENBAUR, CARL (1826-1903)

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Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 550 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GEGENBAUR, CARL (1826-1903) , See also:German anatomist, was See also:born on the 21st of See also:August 1826 at Wiirzburg, the university of which he entered as a student in 1845. After taking his degree in 1851 he spent some See also:time in travelling in See also:Italy and See also:Sicily, before returning to See also:Wurzburg as Privatdocent in 1854. In 1855 he was appointed extraordinary See also:professor of See also:anatomy at See also:Jena,, where after 1865 his See also:fellow-worker, See also:Ernst See also:Haeckel, was professor of See also:zoology, and in 1858 he became the See also:ordinary professor. In 1873 he was appointed to See also:Heidelberg, where he was professor of anatomy and director of the Anatomical See also:Institute until his retirement in 19or. He died at Heidelberg on the 14th of See also:June 1903. The See also:work by which perhaps he is best known is his Grundriss der vergleichenden Anatomic (See also:Leipzig, 1874; 2nd See also:GEIBEL edition, 1878). This was translated into See also:English by W. F. See also:Jeffrey See also:Bell (Elements of See also:Comparative Anatomy, 1878), with additions by E. See also:Ray Lankester. While recognizing the importance of comparative See also:embryology in the study of descent, Gegenbaur laid stress on the higher value of comparative anatomy as the basis of the study of homologies, i.e. of the relations between corresponding parts in different animals, as, for example, the See also:arm of See also:man, the foreleg, of the See also:horse and the wing of a See also:fowl. A distinctive piece of work was effected by him in 1871 in supplementing the See also:evidence adduced by See also:Huxley in refutation of the theory of the origin of the See also:skull from See also:expanded vertebrae, which, formulated independently by See also:Goethe and See also:Oken, had been championed by See also:Owen.

Huxley demonstrated that the skull is built up of cartilaginous pieces; Gegenbaur showed that " in the lowest (gristly) fishes, where hints of the See also:

original vertebrae might be most expected, the skull is an unsegmented gristly See also:brain-See also:box, and that in higher forms the vertebral nature of the skull cannot be maintained, since many of the bones, notably those along the See also:top of the skull, arise in the skin." Other publications by Gegenbaur include a See also:Text-See also:book of Human Anatomy (Leipzig, 1883, new ed. 1903), the Epiglottis (1892) and Comparative Anatomy of the Vertebrates in relation to the Invertebrates (Leipzig, 2 vols., 1898–1901). In 1875 he founded the Morphologisches Jahrbuch, which he edited for many years. In 1901 he published a See also:short autobiography under the See also:title Erlebtes and Erslrebtes. See Fiirbringer in Heidelberger Professoren aus dem Ipten Jahrhundert (Heidelberg, 1903).

End of Article: GEGENBAUR, CARL (1826-1903)

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