Pictures of evolution and charges of fraud: Ernst Haeckel's embryological illustrations.

Comparative illustrations of vertebrate embryos by the leading nineteenth-century Darwinist Ernst Haeckel have been both highly contested and canonical. Though the target of repeated fraud charges since 1868, the pictures were widely reproduced in textbooks through the twentieth century. Concentrating on their first ten years, this essay uses the accusations to shed light on the novelty of Haeckel's visual argumentation and to explore how images come to count as proper representations or illegitimate schematics as they cross between the esoteric and exoteric circles of science. It exploits previously unused manuscripts to reconstruct the drawing, printing, and publishing of the illustrations that attracted the first and most influential attack, compares these procedures to standard practice, and highlights their originality. It then explains why, though Haeckel was soon accused, controversy ignited only seven years later, after he aligned a disciplinary struggle over embryology with a major confrontation between liberal nationalism--and Catholicism--and why the contested pictures nevertheless survived.

Haeckel's ABC of evolution and development.

One of the central, unresolved controversies in biology concerns the distribution of primitive versus advanced characters at different stages of vertebrate development. This controversy has major implications for evolutionary developmental biology and phylogenetics. Ernst Haeckel addressed the issue with his Biogenetic Law, and his embryo drawings functioned as supporting data. We re-examine Haeckel's work and its significance for modern efforts to develop a rigorous comparative framework for developmental studies. Haeckel's comparative embryology was evolutionary but non-quantitative. It was based on developmental sequences, and treated heterochrony as a sequence change. It is not always clear whether he believed in recapitulation of single characters or entire stages. The Biogenetic Law is supported by several recent studies -- if applied to single characters only. Haeckel's important but overlooked alphabetical analogy of evolution and development is an advance on von Baer. Haeckel recognized the evolutionary diversity in early embryonic stages, in line with modern thinking. He did not necessarily advocate the strict form of recapitulation and terminal addition commonly attributed to him. Haeckel's much-criticized embryo drawings are important as phylogenetic hypotheses, teaching aids, and evidence for evolution. While some criticisms of the drawings are legitimate, others are more tendentious. In opposition to Haeckel and his embryo drawings, Wilhelm His made major advances towards developing a quantitative comparative embryology based on morphometrics. Unfortunately His's work in this area is largely forgotten. Despite his obvious flaws, Haeckel can be seen as the father of a sequence-based phylogenetic embryology.

Evolución de los perímetros del iris y de la pupila fetal durante la gestación / Evolution of the perimeters of the iris and of the fetal pupil throughout gestation

Objetivo: La actividad pupilar depende del sistema nervioso autónomo y su regulación llega a alcanzar el córtex cerebral. En este artículo se estudia la evolución funcional del iris fetal en condiciones basales.Sujetos y métodos: Se examinaron mediante ultrasonidos 192 pupilas de fetos humanos desde las semanas 15 hasta la 42. Las imágenes eran digitalizadas para la medición informática de los perímetros de la pupila y del iris.Resultados: El perímetro del iris presenta un progreso lineal durante la gestación. El perímetro de la pupila muestra una evolución variable. A partir de la semana 23, el perímetro pupilar con relación al del iris es menor al 30 por 100. Esta relación, perímetro pupilar/iris, presenta una variación estadísticamente significativa a lo largo de la gestación (test de Kruskal-Wallis).Conclusiones: La actividad pupilar manifiesta una integridad de determinadas vías neurológicas y puede permitir un nuevo control neurológico de los fetos humanos (AU)

Ginatresias

1.Las alteraciones embriologicas de los conductos de muller dan origen a las malformaciones congenitas de los organos genitales femeninos el incompleto o defectuoso desarrollo de los mismos en su porsion caudal trae consigo las atresias vaginales, 2.El verdadero origen embriologico de las atresias no se conoce en actualidad se acepta mas la teorioa de Nagel-Veit, 3.Con relacion a las afecciones de los genitales femeninos el porcentaje de atresias es muy reducido, 4.Diagnosticada una atresia adquirida esta debe ser comprobada por el examen respectivo (serologico bacteriologico), 5.Las atresias vaginales adquiridad son mas frecuentes que las congenitas, 6.Las afecciones inflamatorias localizadas a nivel de la vagina son la causa principal de la atresia de este organo la sifilis origina mas frecuentemente la ginatresia, 7.La alteraciobn mas frecuentemente producida por la atresia vaginal es el hematocolpos con la consiguiente anormal funcion de los organos vecinos