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Anton Dohrn
Felix Anton Dohrn FRS FRSE (29 December 1840 – 26 September 1909) was a prominent German Darwinist and the founder and first director of the first marine-biological and zoological research station in the world, the Stazione Zoologica in Naples, Italy. The institution became a centre for the exchange of biological ideas through the network of visitors from around the world. He worked on embryology and examined vertebrate origins in terms of functional phylogeny and proposed a principle of succession of functions in 1875 on how one organ could become the basis for the evolution of another of an entirely different function. The institution transitioned from a private one to a public Italian organization through the subsequent management by his son Reinhard Dohrn. He was an elected International Member of the American Philosophical Society. and in 1892 he was awarded honorary membership of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society.
Dohrn was born in Stettin (Szczecin), in the Province of Pomerania of the Kingdom of Prussia, into a wealthy middle-class family. His grandfather, Heinrich Dohrn, had been a wine and spice merchant, and had made the family fortune by trading in sugar and a director of the sugar refinery Pommersche Provinzial Zuckersiederei. This wealth and advice from Alexander von Humboldt, allowed Anton's father, Carl August (1806–1892), to devote himself to his various hobbies; travelling, folk music and insects. Anton, the youngest son, read zoology and medicine at various German universities (Königsberg, Bonn, Jena and Berlin). The attitudes of his father, a liberal one with interest in people, literature, music (Felix Mendelssohn was his godfather) and science was to have a key role in Dohrn's own work as a promoter of scientific collaboration. His brother Heinrich Wolfgang Ludwig Dohrn was also a zoologist.
Dohrn received an early education which was based on humanist ideals. He went to study medicine and zoology and Koenigsberg, Bonn, Jena and Berlin. was initially interested in Hemiptera. In 1859, he published Beitrag zur Kenntniss der Harpactoridae in Entomologische Zeitung and the more important Catalogus hemipterorum. He gained his doctorate from Breslau in November 1865 with his thesis "On the Anatomy of Hemiptera". He visited Heligoland along with Ernst Haeckel to examine marine organisms for the first time. Haeckel talked about a zoological station at this time. In 1867 Dohrn visited Millport, Isle of Cumbrae as a guest of David Robertson (1806–1896) who had founded the Millport Biological Station. During this period he became associated with the English scientific establishment through his father's friendship with Henry Tibbats Stainton. He also met Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895). In 1866, he published a paper on fossil insects Zur Kenntniss der Insecten in den Primärformationen. In this he describes Eugereon boeckingi (Palaeodictyoptera). He became a privatdozent at Jena in 1868.
Dohrn's ideas of zoology changed in the summer 1862 when he returned to study at Jena, where Ernst Haeckel introduced him to Darwin's work and theories. Dohrn became a fervent defender of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. He saw comparative anatomy, physiology and embryology as means to determine the evolutionary history of various organisms.
At that time comparative embryology was the keystone of morphological evolutionary studies, based on Haeckel's recapitulation theory, the idea that an organism during its embryonic development passes through the major stages of the evolutionary past of its species. Morphology became one of the major ways in which zoologists sought to expand and develop Darwinian theory in the latter years of the 19th century. Dohrn chose to become a "Darwinian morphologist".
Dohrn received his doctorate in 1865 at Breslau under Eduard Grube, and his Habilitation in 1868 at Jena with Rudolf Virchow, Ernst Haeckel and Carl Gegenbaur. The study subjects were medicine and zoology, and his Jena monograph was Studien zur Embryologie der Arthropoden. From 1868 to 1870, he was a Docent in zoology at Jena. During these times, he worked several times at facilities located by the sea: Heligoland alongside Haeckel in 1865, Hamburg in 1866, Millport, Scotland with David Robertson in 1867 and 1868 and moved to Messina, Italy, during the winter of 1868 together with his friend and colleague Nicholas Miklouho-Maclay to work on the marine life of the Straits of Messina. In 1870 Dohrn was called up to (briefly) serve in the Franco-Prussian War.
Dohrn's view of Haeckel's philosophical generalizations changed after he read Immanuel Kant and F. A. Lange's Geschichte des Materialismus (1866).
Among Dohrn's most highly cited theoretical contributions was his so-called "principle of succession of functions". It was derived from pre-existing ideas, especially those that had been proposed by the comparative anatomist St. George Mivart. Dohrn's ideas on functional phylogenetics underlie some of the embryological hypotheses such as the origin of the vertebrate jaw from gill arches. In his original writings he claimed that gill slits had changed into a variety of vertebrate organs.
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Anton Dohrn
Felix Anton Dohrn FRS FRSE (29 December 1840 – 26 September 1909) was a prominent German Darwinist and the founder and first director of the first marine-biological and zoological research station in the world, the Stazione Zoologica in Naples, Italy. The institution became a centre for the exchange of biological ideas through the network of visitors from around the world. He worked on embryology and examined vertebrate origins in terms of functional phylogeny and proposed a principle of succession of functions in 1875 on how one organ could become the basis for the evolution of another of an entirely different function. The institution transitioned from a private one to a public Italian organization through the subsequent management by his son Reinhard Dohrn. He was an elected International Member of the American Philosophical Society. and in 1892 he was awarded honorary membership of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society.
Dohrn was born in Stettin (Szczecin), in the Province of Pomerania of the Kingdom of Prussia, into a wealthy middle-class family. His grandfather, Heinrich Dohrn, had been a wine and spice merchant, and had made the family fortune by trading in sugar and a director of the sugar refinery Pommersche Provinzial Zuckersiederei. This wealth and advice from Alexander von Humboldt, allowed Anton's father, Carl August (1806–1892), to devote himself to his various hobbies; travelling, folk music and insects. Anton, the youngest son, read zoology and medicine at various German universities (Königsberg, Bonn, Jena and Berlin). The attitudes of his father, a liberal one with interest in people, literature, music (Felix Mendelssohn was his godfather) and science was to have a key role in Dohrn's own work as a promoter of scientific collaboration. His brother Heinrich Wolfgang Ludwig Dohrn was also a zoologist.
Dohrn received an early education which was based on humanist ideals. He went to study medicine and zoology and Koenigsberg, Bonn, Jena and Berlin. was initially interested in Hemiptera. In 1859, he published Beitrag zur Kenntniss der Harpactoridae in Entomologische Zeitung and the more important Catalogus hemipterorum. He gained his doctorate from Breslau in November 1865 with his thesis "On the Anatomy of Hemiptera". He visited Heligoland along with Ernst Haeckel to examine marine organisms for the first time. Haeckel talked about a zoological station at this time. In 1867 Dohrn visited Millport, Isle of Cumbrae as a guest of David Robertson (1806–1896) who had founded the Millport Biological Station. During this period he became associated with the English scientific establishment through his father's friendship with Henry Tibbats Stainton. He also met Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895). In 1866, he published a paper on fossil insects Zur Kenntniss der Insecten in den Primärformationen. In this he describes Eugereon boeckingi (Palaeodictyoptera). He became a privatdozent at Jena in 1868.
Dohrn's ideas of zoology changed in the summer 1862 when he returned to study at Jena, where Ernst Haeckel introduced him to Darwin's work and theories. Dohrn became a fervent defender of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. He saw comparative anatomy, physiology and embryology as means to determine the evolutionary history of various organisms.
At that time comparative embryology was the keystone of morphological evolutionary studies, based on Haeckel's recapitulation theory, the idea that an organism during its embryonic development passes through the major stages of the evolutionary past of its species. Morphology became one of the major ways in which zoologists sought to expand and develop Darwinian theory in the latter years of the 19th century. Dohrn chose to become a "Darwinian morphologist".
Dohrn received his doctorate in 1865 at Breslau under Eduard Grube, and his Habilitation in 1868 at Jena with Rudolf Virchow, Ernst Haeckel and Carl Gegenbaur. The study subjects were medicine and zoology, and his Jena monograph was Studien zur Embryologie der Arthropoden. From 1868 to 1870, he was a Docent in zoology at Jena. During these times, he worked several times at facilities located by the sea: Heligoland alongside Haeckel in 1865, Hamburg in 1866, Millport, Scotland with David Robertson in 1867 and 1868 and moved to Messina, Italy, during the winter of 1868 together with his friend and colleague Nicholas Miklouho-Maclay to work on the marine life of the Straits of Messina. In 1870 Dohrn was called up to (briefly) serve in the Franco-Prussian War.
Dohrn's view of Haeckel's philosophical generalizations changed after he read Immanuel Kant and F. A. Lange's Geschichte des Materialismus (1866).
Among Dohrn's most highly cited theoretical contributions was his so-called "principle of succession of functions". It was derived from pre-existing ideas, especially those that had been proposed by the comparative anatomist St. George Mivart. Dohrn's ideas on functional phylogenetics underlie some of the embryological hypotheses such as the origin of the vertebrate jaw from gill arches. In his original writings he claimed that gill slits had changed into a variety of vertebrate organs.
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