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THE BIOCHEMICAL ASPECT OF THE RECAPITULATION THEORY
Author(s) -
NEEDHAM JOSEPH
Publication year - 1930
Publication title -
biological reviews
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.993
H-Index - 165
eISSN - 1469-185X
pISSN - 1464-7931
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-185x.1930.tb00897.x
Subject(s) - formative assessment , simplicity , biology , similarity (geometry) , ontogeny , evolutionary biology , epistemology , cognitive science , psychology , computer science , philosophy , genetics , artificial intelligence , mathematics education , image (mathematics)
Summary. A discussion of the transitory functions of embryonic life introduces an account of the theory of recapitulation as it stands at the present time. The similarity between organiser phenomena and the formative stimuli provided by recapitulated structures is pointed out, and it is concluded that recapitulation itself cannot be regarded as an explanation of anything. A survey is given of the chemical events in embryonic development which seem to possess recapitulatory significance. Recapitulation may be regarded as fundamentally the result of the necessary passage from simplicity to complexity, from low to high organisation, which is entailed by the metazoal sexual system of reproduction, with its single egg cell. The retention of visible organs or structures from lower ontogenies in a given ontogeny is only a special case of this general rule and probably depends on the presence in them of essential formative stimuli.