Kammerer , Paul

Kammerer , Paul
(1880–1926) Austrian zoologist
Kammerer, the son of a prosperous factory owner, was educated at the university in his native city of Vienna, where he obtained his PhD. He then joined the staff of the university's recently opened Institute of Experimental Biology, where he worked until the end of 1922 and soon established a reputation as a skilled experimentalist. Much of his work appeared to support the unorthodox doctrine of the inheritance of acquired characteristics associated with Jean Lamarck. The most famous of Kammerer's experiments concerned the breeding behavior of Alytes obstetricans, the midwife toad. Unlike most other toads this species mates on land; the male consequently lacks the nuptial pads, blackish swellings on the hand, possessed by water-breeding males in the mating season to enable them to grasp the female during copulation.
Kammerer undertook the experiment of inducing several generations of Alytes to copulate in water to see what changes resulted. This involved overcoming the difficult task of rearing the eggs in water and ensuring the developing tadpoles were kept free of fungal infection. After almost ten years following this line he noted that in the F3 generation (the great grandchildren of the original parents) grayish-black swellings, resembling rudimentary nuptial pads, could be seen on the upper, outer, and palmar sides of the first finger.
In 1923 Kammerer visited Britain in the hope of resolving a controversy that had arisen between himself and the leading Cambridge geneticist William Bateson. As virtually all his animals had been destroyed in the war, he brought with him as evidence one preserved specimen and slides of the nuptial pads from the F5 generation made some ten years earlier. His lectures at Cambridge and to the Linnean Society were successful and none of the eminent biologists who examined Kammerer's specimen noticed anything suspect.
However when, early in 1926, G. Noble of the American Museum of Natural History came to examine the specimen in Vienna he found no nuptial pads, only blackened areas caused by the injection of ink. Despite the support of the institute's director, Hans Przibram, several possible explanations of the obvious fraud, and a still-open invitation from Moscow to establish an experimental institute there, Kammerer shot himself some six months after Noble's visit.
Kammerer had in fact carried out a whole series of experiments of which the work with Alytes was but a part, and for him not the most important part. In 1909 he claimed to have induced inherited color adaptation in salamander, and by cutting the siphons of the sea squirt Ciona intestinalis, to have induced hereditary elongations. The few people who attempted to repeat Kammerer's results were unsuccessful although in certain cases Kammerer was able to claim, with some justification, that his protocols had not been scrupulously followed.

Scientists. . 2011.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Kammerer, Paul — ▪ Austrian biologist born August 17, 1880, Vienna, Austria died September 23, 1926, Puchberg, Germany       Austrian biologist who claimed to have produced experimental evidence that acquired traits could be inherited.       The results of… …   Universalium

  • Paul Kammerer — (* 17. August 1880 in Wien; † 23. September 1926 in Puchberg am Schneeberg) war ein österreichischer Biologe, der durch seine Versuche mit Geburtshelferkröten, mit denen er die Vererbung erworbener Eigenschaften beweis …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Kammerer — may refer to:* Zoltán Kammerer * Maxim Kammerer * Paul Kammerer * Carl Kammerer * 112233 Kammerer …   Wikipedia

  • Paul Kammerer — Pour les articles homonymes, voir Kammerer. Paul Kammerer (1880 1923). Photographie conservée à la bibliothèque du Congrès des États Unis. Paul Kammerer, né le …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Kammerer — ist ein Familienname. Bekannte Namensträger Anton Kammerer (1862–1884), österreichischer Anarchist, Deserteur und Raubmörder Axel Kammerer (* 1964), deutscher Eishockeyspieler, Trainer Carl Kammerer, Mitgründer des Wiener Unternehmens Starke… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Paul Bargeton — est un diplomate français élevé à la dignité d ambassadeur de France en 1947, né le 11 mars 1882 à Chambéry et mort le 18 janvier 1963. Son nom a été donné à une place de la commune de Mézy sur Seine, dont il fut maire. Sommaire 1 Famille 2… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Paul Moder — (1933) Paul Moder (* 1. Oktober 1896 in Neheim; † 8. Februar 1942 bei Maly Kalinez/Oblast Nowgorod) war ein deutscher Politiker (NSDAP), Freikorps und SS Führer. Ab 1932 war er Reichstagsabgeordneter, nach der „Machtergreifung …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Paul Sniderman — Paul Sniderman, Ph.D., an American political scientist, is the Fairleigh S. Dickinson Jr. Professor of Public Policy at Stanford University. [ [http://politicalscience.stanford.edu/faculty/sniderman.html Staff page at Stanford University] He is… …   Wikipedia

  • Paul Fugger — Paul Graf Fugger (auch: Paul Graf Fugger Kirchberg Weißenhorn) (* 13. Oktober 1637 in Augsburg; † 27. April 1701 in München war Reichshofrat und kurbayerischer Obersthofmeister. Paul Graf Fugger war das 15. Kind von Otto Heinrich (genannt… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Paul Graf Fugger — (auch: Paul Graf Fugger Kirchberg Weißenhorn) (* 13. Oktober 1637 in Augsburg; † 27. April 1701 in München war Reichshofrat und kurbayerischer Obersthofmeister. Paul Graf Fugger war das 15. Kind von Otto Heinrich (genannt Ottheinrich) Graf Fugger …   Deutsch Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”