science · 02 February 1869 · 155 years ago
birth
Born 2 Feb 1869; died 19 Dec 1954 at age 85.
American zoologist known for work on sensitivity and reactivity of animal organisms, but especially on reproduction, development, and especially regeneration. In 1911, he formulated the axial gradient theory. He believed that when a simple animal regenerates after an injury, the physiological stages occur along an axis, with each successive process appearing to be connected with the stage immediately preceeding it. He observed a similarity between such regeneration and embryonic development in that the dominant section is formed first, with the lesser ones following. Though present knowledge views his theory as incorrect, in its time, it represented an early approach to understanding functional organization within organisms.
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