Paul Kammerer
Encyclopedia
Paul Kammerer was an Austria
n biologist who studied and advocated the now abandoned Lamarckian theory of inheritance
– the notion that organisms may pass to their offspring characteristics they have acquired in their lifetime. He began his academic career at the Vienna Academy studying music but graduated with a degree in biology
.
of amphibians. He coerced ovoviviparous fire salamander
s to become viviparous, and viviparous alpine salamander
s to become ovoviviparous. In lesser-known experiments, he manipulated and bred olm
s. He made olms produce live young, and he bred dark-colored olms with full vision. He supported the Lamarckian theory of the heritability of acquired characteristics, and experimented extensively to prove this theory.
Kammerer succeeded in making midwife toad
s breed in the water by increasing water temperatures, and reported that his midwife toads were exhibiting black nuptial pad
s on their feet. While the prehistoric ancestors of midwife toads had these pads, Kammerer considered this an acquired characteristic brought about by adaptation to environment. Claims arose that the result of the experiment had been falsified. The most notable of these claims was made by Dr. G. K. Noble
, Curator of Reptiles at the American Museum of Natural History
, in the scientific journal Nature
. Noble claimed that the black pads actually had a far more mundane explanation: it had simply been injected there with Indian ink. Six weeks later, Kammerer committed suicide in the forest of Schneeberg
.
's book, The Case of the Midwife Toad. Koestler surmised that Kammerer's experiments on the midwife toad may have been tampered with by a Nazi sympathizer
at the University of Vienna
. Certainly, as Koestler writes, "the Hakenkreuzler, the swastika-wearers, as the Austrian Nazis of the early days were called, were growing in power. One center of ferment was the University of Vienna where, on the traditional Saturday morning student parades, bloody battles were fought. Kammerer was known by his public lectures and newspaper articles as an ardent pacifist and Socialist; it was also known that he was going to build an institute in Soviet Russia
. "An act of sabotage in the laboratory would have been…in keeping with the climate of those days."
Kammerer had previously exhibited the toad in England, where it had been inspected by eminent zoologists, all of whom doubted the validity of Lamarckism
, and none of them detected the irregularities later discovered by Noble. Since the injected ink was rather conspicuous, this suggests that the possible sabotage had been committed shortly before Noble's visit to Vienna, when Kammerer was no longer working at the Institute.
Kammerer had already experimented with sea squirts, salamanders and other animals and believed that these experiments provided evidence of Lamarckian inheritance. He regarded the possible inheritance of a pad on the foot of a male midwife toad as of relatively minor significance in the argument. Many biologists from all over Europe visited him in Vienna and photographs and reports of his work were widely available. He approved the inspection of the specimen which was found to have been tampered with and expressed great astonishment when this was made known to him.
As a consequence of Noble's refutation, interest in Lamarckian inheritance diminished except in the Soviet Union where it was championed by Lysenko
. The contemporary view in biology remained that acquired characteristics cannot be inherited and that every case documented by Kammerer falls in the broad category of phenotypic plasticity
.
Sander Gliboff of the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, Indiana University
has commented that, though Kammerer's conclusions proved false, his evidence was probably genuine and that he did not simply argue for Lamarckism and against Darwinism as those theories are now understood. Rather, if we look beyond the scandal, the story shows us much about the competing theories of biological and cultural evolution and the range of new ideas about heredity and variation in early 20th-century biology and the changes in experimental approach that have occurred since that time.
In 2009 Alexander Vargas, an evolutionary developmental biologist, suggested that the inheritance of acquired traits (Lamarckian inheritance) that Kammerer observed in the Midwife Toad could be real and could be explained by epigenetics
. Kammerer could be the true discoverer of non-Mendelian
, epigenetic inheritance. The mechanism of epigenetic inheritance is a chemical modification of DNA (e.g. DNA methylation
) that can be passed on to subsequent generations. Furthermore, the parent-of-origin effect, which was confusing at the time, can be explained today because similar effects have been discovered in other organisms.
He postulated that all events are connected by waves of seriality. These unknown forces would cause what we would perceive as just the peaks, or groupings and coincidences. Kammerer was known to, for example, make notes in public parks of what numbers of people were passing by, how many carried umbrellas etc. Albert Einstein
called the idea of Seriality "interesting, and by no means absurd", while Carl Jung
drew upon Kammerer's work in his essay Synchronicity. Koestler reported that, when researching for his biography about Kammerer, he himself was subjected to "a meteor shower" of coincidences - as if Kammerer's ghost were grinning down at him saying, "I told you so!"
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n biologist who studied and advocated the now abandoned Lamarckian theory of inheritance
Lamarckism
Lamarckism is the idea that an organism can pass on characteristics that it acquired during its lifetime to its offspring . It is named after the French biologist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck , who incorporated the action of soft inheritance into his evolutionary theories...
– the notion that organisms may pass to their offspring characteristics they have acquired in their lifetime. He began his academic career at the Vienna Academy studying music but graduated with a degree in biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
.
Work
Kammerer undertook numerous biology experiments, largely involving interfering with the breeding and developmentEmbryology
Embryology is a science which is about the development of an embryo from the fertilization of the ovum to the fetus stage...
of amphibians. He coerced ovoviviparous fire salamander
Fire Salamander
The fire salamander is probably the best-known salamander species in Europe. It is black with yellow spots or stripes to a varying degree; some specimens can be nearly completely black while on others the yellow is dominant. Shades of red and orange may sometimes appear, either replacing or mixing...
s to become viviparous, and viviparous alpine salamander
Alpine Salamander
The Alpine Salamander is a shiny black salamander. It is found in the Central, Eastern and Dinaric Alps, at altitudes above 700 meters. The Western Alps are inhabited by a similar species Salamandra lanzai in only one small area. There are no differences in length between sexes and sex ratio...
s to become ovoviviparous. In lesser-known experiments, he manipulated and bred olm
Olm
The olm, or proteus , is a blind amphibian endemic to the subterranean waters of caves of the Dinaric karst of southern Europe. It lives in the waters that flow underground through this extensive limestone region including waters of the Soča river basin near Trieste in Italy, through to southern...
s. He made olms produce live young, and he bred dark-colored olms with full vision. He supported the Lamarckian theory of the heritability of acquired characteristics, and experimented extensively to prove this theory.
Kammerer succeeded in making midwife toad
Midwife toad
Midwife toads are a genus of frogs in the Discoglossidae family, and are found in most of Europe and northwestern Africa. Characteristic of these toad-like frogs is their parental care: the males carry a string of fertilised eggs on their back, hence the name "midwife". The female expels a strand...
s breed in the water by increasing water temperatures, and reported that his midwife toads were exhibiting black nuptial pad
Nuptial pad
A nuptial pad is a secondary sex characteristic present on some mature male frogs and salamanders. Triggered by androgen hormones, this breeding gland appears as a spiked epithelial swelling on the forearm and prepollex that aids with grip, used primarily by males to grasp females during amplexus...
s on their feet. While the prehistoric ancestors of midwife toads had these pads, Kammerer considered this an acquired characteristic brought about by adaptation to environment. Claims arose that the result of the experiment had been falsified. The most notable of these claims was made by Dr. G. K. Noble
Gladwyn Kingsley Noble
Gladwyn Kingsley Noble was an American zoologist.- Works :*"American Egret at Martha's Vineyard, Mass" The Auk Vol. 31 N. 1: 100...
, Curator of Reptiles at the American Museum of Natural History
American Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History , located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, is one of the largest and most celebrated museums in the world...
, in the scientific journal Nature
Nature (journal)
Nature, first published on 4 November 1869, is ranked the world's most cited interdisciplinary scientific journal by the Science Edition of the 2010 Journal Citation Reports...
. Noble claimed that the black pads actually had a far more mundane explanation: it had simply been injected there with Indian ink. Six weeks later, Kammerer committed suicide in the forest of Schneeberg
Schneeberg (Alps)
The Schneeberg, with its 2076 m-high summit Klosterwappen, is the highest mountain of Lower Austria, and the easternmost 2000 m-high mountain in the Alps. It is a distinctive limestone massif with steep slopes on three sides....
.
Aftermath
Interest in Kammerer revived in 1971 with the publication of Arthur KoestlerArthur Koestler
Arthur Koestler CBE was a Hungarian author and journalist. Koestler was born in Budapest and, apart from his early school years, was educated in Austria...
's book, The Case of the Midwife Toad. Koestler surmised that Kammerer's experiments on the midwife toad may have been tampered with by a Nazi sympathizer
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
at the University of Vienna
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna is a public university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world...
. Certainly, as Koestler writes, "the Hakenkreuzler, the swastika-wearers, as the Austrian Nazis of the early days were called, were growing in power. One center of ferment was the University of Vienna where, on the traditional Saturday morning student parades, bloody battles were fought. Kammerer was known by his public lectures and newspaper articles as an ardent pacifist and Socialist; it was also known that he was going to build an institute in Soviet Russia
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic , commonly referred to as Soviet Russia, Bolshevik Russia, or simply Russia, was the largest, most populous and economically developed republic in the former Soviet Union....
. "An act of sabotage in the laboratory would have been…in keeping with the climate of those days."
Kammerer had previously exhibited the toad in England, where it had been inspected by eminent zoologists, all of whom doubted the validity of Lamarckism
Lamarckism
Lamarckism is the idea that an organism can pass on characteristics that it acquired during its lifetime to its offspring . It is named after the French biologist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck , who incorporated the action of soft inheritance into his evolutionary theories...
, and none of them detected the irregularities later discovered by Noble. Since the injected ink was rather conspicuous, this suggests that the possible sabotage had been committed shortly before Noble's visit to Vienna, when Kammerer was no longer working at the Institute.
Kammerer had already experimented with sea squirts, salamanders and other animals and believed that these experiments provided evidence of Lamarckian inheritance. He regarded the possible inheritance of a pad on the foot of a male midwife toad as of relatively minor significance in the argument. Many biologists from all over Europe visited him in Vienna and photographs and reports of his work were widely available. He approved the inspection of the specimen which was found to have been tampered with and expressed great astonishment when this was made known to him.
As a consequence of Noble's refutation, interest in Lamarckian inheritance diminished except in the Soviet Union where it was championed by Lysenko
Trofim Lysenko
Trofim Denisovich Lysenko was a Soviet agronomist of Ukrainian origin, who was director of Soviet biology under Joseph Stalin. Lysenko rejected Mendelian genetics in favor of the hybridization theories of Russian horticulturist Ivan Vladimirovich Michurin, and adopted them into a powerful...
. The contemporary view in biology remained that acquired characteristics cannot be inherited and that every case documented by Kammerer falls in the broad category of phenotypic plasticity
Phenotypic plasticity
Phenotypic plasticity is the ability of an organism to change its phenotype in response to changes in the environment. Such plasticity in some cases expresses as several highly morphologically distinct results; in other cases, a continuous norm of reaction describes the functional interrelationship...
.
Sander Gliboff of the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, Indiana University
Indiana University
Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...
has commented that, though Kammerer's conclusions proved false, his evidence was probably genuine and that he did not simply argue for Lamarckism and against Darwinism as those theories are now understood. Rather, if we look beyond the scandal, the story shows us much about the competing theories of biological and cultural evolution and the range of new ideas about heredity and variation in early 20th-century biology and the changes in experimental approach that have occurred since that time.
In 2009 Alexander Vargas, an evolutionary developmental biologist, suggested that the inheritance of acquired traits (Lamarckian inheritance) that Kammerer observed in the Midwife Toad could be real and could be explained by epigenetics
Epigenetics
In biology, and specifically genetics, epigenetics is the study of heritable changes in gene expression or cellular phenotype caused by mechanisms other than changes in the underlying DNA sequence – hence the name epi- -genetics...
. Kammerer could be the true discoverer of non-Mendelian
Mendelian inheritance
Mendelian inheritance is a scientific description of how hereditary characteristics are passed from parent organisms to their offspring; it underlies much of genetics...
, epigenetic inheritance. The mechanism of epigenetic inheritance is a chemical modification of DNA (e.g. DNA methylation
DNA methylation
DNA methylation is a biochemical process that is important for normal development in higher organisms. It involves the addition of a methyl group to the 5 position of the cytosine pyrimidine ring or the number 6 nitrogen of the adenine purine ring...
) that can be passed on to subsequent generations. Furthermore, the parent-of-origin effect, which was confusing at the time, can be explained today because similar effects have been discovered in other organisms.
Seriality theory
Kammerer's other passion was collecting coincidences. He published a book with the title Das Gesetz der Serie (The Law of the Series; never translated into English) in which he recounted some 100 anecdotes of coincidences that had led him to formulate his theory of Seriality.He postulated that all events are connected by waves of seriality. These unknown forces would cause what we would perceive as just the peaks, or groupings and coincidences. Kammerer was known to, for example, make notes in public parks of what numbers of people were passing by, how many carried umbrellas etc. Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
called the idea of Seriality "interesting, and by no means absurd", while Carl Jung
Carl Jung
Carl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and the founder of Analytical Psychology. Jung is considered the first modern psychiatrist to view the human psyche as "by nature religious" and make it the focus of exploration. Jung is one of the best known researchers in the field of dream analysis and...
drew upon Kammerer's work in his essay Synchronicity. Koestler reported that, when researching for his biography about Kammerer, he himself was subjected to "a meteor shower" of coincidences - as if Kammerer's ghost were grinning down at him saying, "I told you so!"
Further reading
- Arthur Koestler, The Case of the Midwife Toad, London: HutchinsonHutchinson (publisher)Hutchinson & Co. was an English book publisher, founded in 1887. The company merged with Century Publishing in 1985 to form Century Hutchinson, and was folded into the British Random House Group in 1989, where it remains as an imprint in the Cornerstone Publishing division...
, 1971