Concept
Embryology
Overview
Embryology (from Greek ἔμβρυον, embryon, 'the unborn, embryo'; and -λογία, -logia) is the branch of zoology that studies the prenatal development of gametes (sex cells), fertilization and development of embryos and fetuses. Embryology includes teratology, the study of congenital disorders that occur before birth.
Early embryology, put forward by Marcello Malpighi, was preformationist in concept: based on the idea that organisms develop from pre-existing miniature versions of themselves. The theory now accepted, epigenesis, is the idea that organisms develop from seed or egg in a sequence of steps. This concept was proposed in antiquity by Aristotle. Modern embryology developed from the work of Karl Ernst von Baer, though accurate observations had been made in Italy by anatomists such as Aldrovandi and Leonardo da Vinci in the Renaissance.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
The title of the chapter suggests a metaphor, which is, indeed, something more than a metaphor. There is an embryology of conceptions. That this statement is not wholly a figure of speech, we shall see on considering that cerebral organization is a part of organization at large; and that the evolving nervous plexus which is the correlative of an…
Herbert Spencer, The Principles of Biology, Volume 1
The chapter “THE ARGUMENTS FROM EMBRYOLOGY.” is titled for Embryology; names Embryology.
Thus, if we may rely on embryology, ever the safest guide in classification, it seems that we have at last gained a clew to the source whence the Vertebrata were derived. We should then be justified in believing that at an extremely remote period a group of animals existed, resembling in many respects the larvæ of our present Ascidians, which diverged into two great branches--the one…
Charles Darwin, Darwinism stated by Darwin himself
Opens on Embryology; names Embryology.
Species and groups of species which are called aberrant, and which may fancifully be called living fossils, will aid us in forming a picture of the ancient forms of life. Embryology will often reveal to us the structure, in some degree obscured, of the prototypes of each great class.
Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection
States what Embryology is; names Embryology.
Philosophers who discussed Embryology
Related ideas
- Epicurus
- Bhagavata Purana
- Galen
- Hippocrates
- Italy
- Ancient Greek
- Nachmanides
- History of Animals
- Parts of Animals
- Leonardo da Vinci
- Sefer Yetzirah
- Middle Ages
- Molecular biology
- Stoicism
- Mutation
- Aeschylus
- Augustine of Hippo
- Philo
- Alcmaeon of Croton
- Diogenes of Apollonia
- Origen
- Plato
- Bhagavad Gita
- Neoplatonism
Place in the tradition
Part of Parmenides.