Joseph Gottlieb Kölreuter
Joseph Gottlieb Kölreuter | |
---|---|
Born | 27 April 1733 |
Died | 11 November 1806 | (aged 73)
Known for | Reciprocal cross |
Joseph Gottlieb Kölreuter (27 April 1733 – 11 November 1806), also spelled Koelreuter or Kohlreuter, was a German
Biography
Kölreuter was the oldest of three sons of an apothecary in
Researches
Kölreuter followed the standard idea of the period of plants and nature personified by a Creator. He expected patterns, for instance, homogeneity in the male and female contributions to the progeny. He also strongly believed in epigenetic influences which may have been derived from the teachings of C. F. Wolff. The dominant belief during his time was that an offspring was already preformed in the female or the male and that the embryo was developed after sex and the origin decided the offspring's characteristics or similarities to the parent. Kölreuter, however noted a mixing of characters and proposed the idea of “seed matters” (Saamenstoffe).[2] According to Kölreuter there had to be two uniform fluids, male and female semen which combined in the process of fertilization. He believed that equal quantities of the male and female fluid were needed and he therefore examined how much pollen was needed in fertilization of a given number of seeds. In flowers with multiple stigmas, he cut all but one and found that pollinating it was enough to fertilize all the seeds. He examined the action of stigma fluid on pollen, described many plant species, and studied pollen and its transfer.[1]
Kölreuter's major works were produced as four reports Vorlaufige Nachricht von einigen das Geschlecht der Pflanzen betreffenden Versuchen und Beobachtungen (1761), Fortsetzung (1763), Zweyte Fortsetzung (1764), and Dritte Fortsetzung (1766). They were reprinted in 1893 in
Although Koelreuter did not endorse the transmutation of species, his hybridisation research influenced the development of evolutionary theory in the eighteenth century.[4]
The genus Koelreuteria has been named in his honour.
Works
- Dissertatio inauguralis medica de insectis coleopteris, nec non de plantis quibusdam rarioribus... Tubingae: litteris Erhardianis (1755)
- Vorläufige Nachricht von einigen, das Geschlecht der Pflanzen betreffenden Versuchen (1761-1766)
- Das entdeckte Geheimniss der Cryptogamie (1777)
References
- ^ S2CID 96475941.
- ^ S2CID 171923043.
- ^ Henig 2000, p. 74.
- ^ Glass, Bentley. (1960). Eighteenth-Century Concepts of the Origin of Species. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 104 (2): 227-234.
- ^ International Plant Names Index. Kölr.
- Bibliography
- Henig, Robin Marantz (2000). The Monk in the Garden: The Lost and Found Genius of Gregor Mendel, the Father of Genetics. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0395-97765-1.