Axes, planes and tubes, or the geometry of embryogenesis

The paper presents selected figures of chick embryogenesis as depicted in the classic studies of Caspar Friedrich Wolff (1734–1794), Christian Heinrich Pander (1794–1865) and Karl Ernst von Baer (1792–1786). My main objective here is (1) to demonstrate how the imagery of Wolff, Pander and Baer attempted to project an image of a 3-dimensional rotating body into static figures on paper by means of linear contours, and (2) to ponder on the efficacy and pervasiveness of dots, lines and arrows for depicting embryogenesis.

► Their imagery set a visual standard for comparative embryology up to the 1950s. ► Tacit knowledge of how to utilize simple ‘lines’. ► A first attempt to determine the fate and/or specificiation of embryonic parts. ► They shifted the point of view [..] to a geometry of tubular transformations. ► Images and their production are essential for scientific knowledge in general.