Dromo's Den

[Up] [Dromo's Den]

Ernst Haeckel Biography

Ernst Haeckel Image

HAECKEL, hĕk'l, Ernst (1834–). A German zoölogist and natural philosopher, born at Potsdam. He studied medicine and the natural sciences at Berlin, under Johannes Müller, and at Jena. After taking his medical degree at Berlin, he practiced medicine for a year, and then, having decided to devote himself to the natural sciences, he studied marine life in Heligoland, Messina, and Naples. In 1861 he became privatdocent, in 1862 professor extraordinarius, and in 1865 professor of zoölogy at Jena. He made numerous scientific journeys—to the Canary Islands, to Norway, the Adriatic, the Red Sea, Corsica, Sardinia, Ceylon, and Java. He published: Die Radiolarien (1862); Die Hydromedusen (1865); Entwicklungsge-schichte der Siphonophoren (1869); Moneren und andere Protisten (1870); Die Kalkschwämme (1872). The last-named work is an important monograph upon calcareous sponges, in which an attempt is made to arrange them in a natural system; the proposition being that the layers forming the body wall are also homologized with the ectoderm and endoderm of the gastrula. This is the basis laid for the celebrated gastræa theory. Other investigations are: Arabische Korallen (1876); Das System der Medusen (1880–81); Reports on the Radiolaria, on the Deep Sea Medusæ, on the Deep Sea Keratosa, on the Siphonophora Collected by the Challenger (1882–88); Plankton-Studien (1890). Haeckel's philosophical writings were first inspired by Darwin's Origin of Species. In 1866 appeared Die generelle Morphologie der Organismen, which was the first attempt to apply the general doctrine of development to the whole field of morphology, and also to found a classification of animals and plants based upon the doctrine of their common relationship. In it he formulates the celebrated "biogenetic" law, already stated by Von Baer, Agassiz, and Fritz Müller. In 1868 appeared Natürliche Schöpfungsgeschichte, translated into English as the History of Creation, which is a popular exposition of the doctrine of evolution and has had the widest circulation and done more to popularize Darwinism in Germany than any other book. Ueber die Entstehung und den Stammbaum des Menschengeschlechtes (1870) and Anthropogenie (1874) treat specially of the descent of man. In Die Gastræatheorie (1874) he traces the phyletic history of all the great groups of the animal kingdom and finds for all of them a common ancestor in the hypothetical gastræa. (See Gastræa Theory.) Haeckel's influence upon contemporaneous thought has been very great. As a popular scientific writer and lecturer, he has spread the knowledge of the principles of Darwinism throughout Germany and Europe, while his speculations on the phyletic history and ancestry of the various groups of animals, and his attempts to classify them so as to express their relationships and common descent, although often erroneous, have stimulated investigation and led the way to the correct interpretation of phenomena. He is one of the best-known exponents of the monistic philosophy, which he has advocated in most of his speculative writings. His most important contribution to it is Die Welträtsel. Gemeinverständliche Studien über monistische Philosophie (4th ed., 1900; Eng. trans., The Riddle of the Universe, 1902). Die systematische Phylogenie (1894) is the last of his contributions to general evolution. Among books of travel Haeckel wrote Indische Reisebriefe (1882) and Aus Insulinde, the latter having first appeared in 1883, and later in an English translation entitled A Visit to Ceylon. More popular, beautifully illustrated works are Kunstformen der Natur (1904) and Wanderbilder (1905). His latest contributions to evolution and especially with reference to man are Anthropogenie (5th ed., 1903); Ueber unsere gegenwärtige Kenntniss vom Ursprung der Menschen (1898), the English edition The Last Link appearing in the same year; Der Kampf um den Entwickelungsgedanken (1905), with the English version called Last Words on Evolution (1906). In 1904 appeared a supplement to the Riddle of the Universe entitled Die Lebenswunder. Consult O. J. Lodge, Life and Matter: A Criticism of Haeckel's Riddle of the Universe (New York, 1905), and W. Bölsche, Haeckel: His Life and Work (London, 1906).