Chapter 1: Introduction

 5th century B.C. – Hippocrates started

scientific approach to explain development
- explained dev’t in terms of heat, waves, wetness & solidification

 6th century B.C. – Aristotle addressed the

problem of how the different parts of the
embryo were formed.
- considered two possibilities
1. Preformation – everything in the embryo preformed from the
beginning and simply got bigger during development; from
miniature to adult (homunculus-sperm containing the embryo)
2. Epigenesis – new structures arose progressively (Kaspar Friedrich
Wolff)
 17th century – Marcello Malpighi gave detailed
account
- gave a detailed account of the development of the chick embryo

 18th century – the preformation/ epigenesis

issue was the subject of debate/arguments
among scientists
- The problem was resolved upon recognition that living things,
involving embryos, were composed of cells.
 Cell theory (between 1820 & 1880)
 (1) every organism is composed of one or
more cells;(2) the cell is the smallest unit
having the properties of life; (3) The
continuity of life arises directly from the
growth and division of single cell. Cells come
from division of pre-existing cells.

 Matthias Schleiden
 Theodor Schwann
 Rudolf Virchow
 Development must be epigenetic – “during
development, many new cells are generated
by division from the egg and new types of
cells are formed”
 19th century; important advancement was
forwarded by Weissmann that offspring does
not inherit the body (soma) of the parent but
only from the germ cells – egg and sperm and
that the germ cells are not influenced by the
body that bears it.
 Gregor Mendel – formulated his laws of
inheritance

- the chromosomes within the nucleus of the zygote are

derived in equal number from both parents

- the chromosome as the physical basis of inheritance

- transmission of genetic characters

 It generates cellular diversity and order within
each generation

 It ensures continuity of life from one

generation to the next