Karl Maksimovich Baer, ​​a famous scientist who did a lot for the development of embryology.

Baer Karl Maksimovich (at birth Karl Ernst von Baer), the period of his life from 1792 to 1876, was born into a German family in Estonia.

Baer is described in biology textbooks as the main founder of the science of the development of animal embryos. One of his studies was the similarities of the formation of the fetus inside the womb, relating to various species. In his own treatises, he named the main principles of the process of embryo formation, which, after a while, will be referred to as "Baer's laws."

Karl Maksimovich was the first to find an egg in a person. During the study of the principle of embryo formation, related to various categories multicellular animals, he noticed specific similar features that are inherent initial stages maturation and disappear after a while.

According to his treatises, in the embryo, first of all, traits are formed that are inherent in the type, then the class, then the order, the genus, and, finally, the species. On the initial moments of their maturation, embryos related to various types and even units, have many common features.

In addition, Baer was able to describe the main steps in the process of embryo formation in multicellular animals: the time and specifics of the formation and changes in the neural tube, as well as the spinal column, in addition, he analyzed the specifics of the structure of other vital organs.

Baer was one of the first scientists to suggest that all the differences in our species, in terms of race, are formed only because of differences in climate. To analyze the process of change in ethnoterritorial groups of people, the biologist for the first time used techniques from craniology (the science of studying the properties of the structure of the skull).

Karl Maksimovich for a long time belonged to a group of like-minded people who agreed with the species similarity of people, and was against the theory of racial domination. For his own firm point of view regarding species similarity, the biologist's statements were subjected to sharp criticism from opposing colleagues.

Speaking about what Karl Maksimovich brought to biology, it is hard not to say what his contribution as a scientist was to geography. According to the so-called Baer effect - a river that flows along the meridian, its western slope is usually steeper, due to regular erosion by the current. Baer K. M. refers to the founders of the Russian geographical society.

In honor of the great scientist, naturalist were named: the highlands in the Caspian lowland, Cape Bera on Novaya Zemlya and even an island in the Taimyr Bay.

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(1792-1876) Russian naturalist, founder of embryology

Karl Maximovich Baer was born on February 28, 1792 in the town of Pipa, Estonian province, in a poor, large family of a retired lieutenant. The boy received his primary education at home, after which he studied at high school in Revel (Tallinn), after which he entered Faculty of Medicine University in Derit (Tartu). Student years Carl Baer coincided with Patriotic War 1812

The young man, seized with a patriotic impulse, took part in it as a medical volunteer. In 1814 he graduated from the university with the title of doctor of medicine, having defended a dissertation on the topic of diseases common in Estonia. Counting university education insufficient for independent medical practice, Karl Baer went to Vienna, and then to Germany in order to acquire practical medical knowledge.

In 1817 he was invited to work in Koenigsberg, to Professor KF Burdakh, and in 1819 he became a professor of zoology at the University of Koenigsberg. It was here in 1819-1830. Karl Maksimovich Baer conducts his work on embryology, which won him world fame. He begins by studying the development of the chick embryo. In less than 4 years, the scientist examined more than two thousand embryos, spreading them in water with thin needles and examining them under a magnifying glass and microscope. Later, the embryos of crustaceans, insects, and mammals are studied in the same way.

The works of Karl Baer are rich in new discoveries. Among them, first of all, is the discovery of the egg in mammals, in particular in humans, the discovery of the dorsal string in vertebrates. In addition, it was he who managed in his research to expand knowledge about the formation of germ layers in the process of individual development of animals.

Of particular interest in biology is the so-called law of germline similarity formulated by Baer. The essence of this law is as follows. In the early phase of development, the embryos of all vertebrates, regardless of their belonging to one class or another, are so similar to each other that it is difficult to distinguish them from each other. Later, in a certain sequence, the embryos begin to show signs of a class, order, family, and genus. Species specificity appears only at the end of embryogenesis. These conclusions, based on rich experimental material, convincingly refuted the proposition prevailing at the beginning of the 19th century that the embryos of higher animals pass through stages in their development corresponding to the adult forms of lower organisms.

The law of germline similarity was adopted by Charles Darwin when substantiating the theory of evolution.

In 1834, Karl Maksimovich Baer returned to Russia, to St. Petersburg. With the move, the young academician's scientific interests and lifestyle change dramatically. In a new place, he is attracted by the boundless expanses of Russia. Huge, but little explored Russia of that time required comprehensive study. And the biologist becomes a geographer-traveler and explorer of the natural resources of the country. He leads expeditions to New Earth, islands Gulf of Finland, Kola Peninsula, Volga region. He studies geography, flora and fauna of the Black, Azov, Caspian Seas.

Exploring the patterns of formation river valleys, the scientist found that the rivers flowing along the meridian, west coast always steeper due to the fact that it is washed away by the current, which deviates under the influence of the rotation of the Earth. This position is known in geography as Baer's law. Karl Baer was one of the initiators and founders of the Russian Geographical Society, which still exists and in which he was elected first vice president.

Since the beginning of the 50s, Karl Maksimovich Baer has been fond of ethnography and anthropology, especially craniology (the study of the skull). By applying improved methods for measuring skulls, which made it possible to objectively compare the craniological features of people different races, the scientist came to important, fundamental conclusions about the nature of racial differences. His main conclusion was the assertion of the unity of origin of all human races, undoubtedly belonging to the same species. Existing racial characteristics- the color of the skin and hair, the difference in facial features and the shape of the skull, in his opinion, are of little importance and do not give grounds for dividing the human race into different species.

In 1864, the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, celebrating its 50th anniversary scientific activity scientist, presented him with a large medal and established the Baer Prize for outstanding services in the field natural sciences. Its first laureates were the young Russian embryologists A. O. Kovalevsky and I. I. Mechnikov, the brilliant creators of comparative evolutionary embryology.

A cape on Novaya Zemlya, an island in the Taimyr Bay, a range of hills in the Caspian lowland (Baer hillocks) are named after Karl Maksimovich Baer.

Baer K.M.(Karl Ernst) - doctor, traveler, founder of embryology, one of the founders of the Russian Geographical Society (1845). 1827 - corresponding member. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (AN), valid member of the Academy of Sciences from 1828, from 1862 - honorary member of the Academy of Sciences. In 1829-1830 and 1834-1867. - lived in Russia (in St. Petersburg). Explored Lake Peipus, Baltic and Caspian Sea, Volga, Lapland and Novaya Zemlya. He explained the regularity of washing away the banks of rivers (Baer's law). Discovered the egg cell of mammals. Studied embryogenesis and formulated 4 regularities, which later called "Baer's Laws".

Karl Ernst, or, as he was called in Russia, Karl Maksimovich Baer, ​​was born on February 17, 1792 in the town of Pip, in the Gerven district of the Estland province. Baer's father, Magnus von Baer, ​​belonged to the Estonian nobility and was married to his cousin Julia von Baer.

Little Carl began to take an early interest different subjects nature and often brought home various fossils, snails and the like. At the age of seven, Karl Baer not only could not read, but did not know a single letter. Subsequently, he was very pleased that "he did not belong to the number of those phenomenal children who, due to the ambition of their parents, are deprived of a bright childhood."

Then home teachers worked with Karl. He studied mathematics, geography, Latin and French and other items. Eleven-year-old Karl has already become familiar with algebra, geometry and trigonometry.

In August 1807, Karl was taken to a noble school at the city cathedral in Revel. After questioning, which looked like an exam, the director of the school assigned him to the senior class (prima), ordering him to attend lower grades only Greek lessons, in which Baer was not prepared at all.

In the first half of 1810, Karl completed the course of the school. He enters Dorpat University. In Dorpat, Baer decided to choose a medical career, although, by his own admission, he himself did not know well why he was making this choice.

When Napoleon's invasion of Russia followed in 1812 and MacDonald's army threatened Riga, many of the Derpt students, including Baer, ​​went as true patriots, to the theater of operations in Riga, where typhus raged in the Russian garrison and in the urban population. Karl also fell ill with typhus, but he survived the disease safely.

In 1814, Karl Baer passed the examination for the degree of doctor of medicine. He presented and defended his dissertation "On Endemic Diseases in Estonia". But still realizing the insufficiency of the knowledge gained, he asked his father to send him to complete his medical education abroad. His father gave him a small amount, on which, according to Baer's calculations, he could live for a year and a half, and the same amount was lent to him by his elder brother.

Baer went abroad, choosing to continue his medical education Vienna, where such famous people of the time as Hildebrand, Rust, Beer and others taught. In the autumn of 1815, Baer arrived in Würzburg to another famous scientist, Dellinger,

To whom he handed, instead recommendation letter, a bag of mosses, explaining his desire to do comparative anatomy. The very next day, Karl Baer, ​​under the guidance of an old scientist, set about dissecting leeches from a pharmacy. In this way, he independently studied the structure of various animals. All his life, Baer kept the liveliest gratitude to Dellinger, who spared neither time nor labor for his education.

Cash Karl Baer, ​​meanwhile, was coming to an end, so he was delighted with the offer of Professor Burdakh to join him as a dissector at the Department of Physiology at the University of Königsberg. As a dissector, Baer immediately opened a course on the comparative anatomy of invertebrates, which was of an applied nature, since it consisted mainly of showing and explaining anatomical preparations and drawings.

Since then, the teaching and scientific activities of Karl Baer have entered their permanent track. He led practical exercises students in the anatomical theatre, taught courses in human anatomy and anthropology and found time to prepare and publish special independent works.

In 1819, Baer managed to get a promotion: he was appointed extraordinary (supernumerary) professor of zoology with an assignment to take up the organization of a zoological museum at the university. In general, this year was a happy one in Baer's life: he married one of the inhabitants of Koenigsberg, Augusta von Medem.

Gradually, in Koenigsberg, Baer became one of the prominent and beloved members of an intelligent society - not only among professors, but also in many families that had no direct relationship to the university. Excellent command of German literary language, Baer sometimes wrote German poetry, moreover, very good and smooth. “I must repent,” Baer says in his autobiography, “that one day it really occurred to me that there was a poet in me. But my attempts made it clear to me that Apollo was not sitting by my cradle. If I did not write humorous poems, then the ridiculous element nevertheless involuntarily crept in in the form of empty pathos or a tearing elegy.

In 1826, Baer was appointed real professor of anatomy and director of the anatomical institute, with the release of the duties of a dissector that had hitherto been on him. That was the time of the upsurge in the creative scientific activity of the scientist. In addition to lectures on zoology and anatomy, which he read at the university, he wrote whole line special works on animal anatomy, made many reports in learned societies on natural history and anthropology. The author of the theory of types based on comparative anatomical data, by right of priority, is considered Georges Cuvier,

Having published his theory in 1812, Baer independently came to similar conclusions, but published his work only in 1826. However, the theory of types would be of much less importance if it were based solely on anatomy and was not supported by data from the history of the development of organisms. The latter was done by Baer, ​​and this gives him the right to be considered, along with Cuvier, the founder of the theory of types.

But the most big success brought Baer embryological research. In 1828, the first volume of his famous "History of the Development of Animals" appeared in print. Baer, ​​studying the embryology of the chicken, observed that early stage of development, when two parallel ridges form on the germinal plate, subsequently closing and forming a brain tube. The scientist was struck by the idea that "the type directs development, the embryo develops, following the basic plan according to which the body of organisms of this class is arranged." He turned to other vertebrates and found in their development a brilliant confirmation of his thought.

The enormous significance of Baer's History of Animal Development lies not only in the clear elucidation of the main embryological processes, but mainly in the brilliant conclusions presented at the end of the first volume of this work under common name"Scholia and Corollaria". The famous zoologist Balfour,

He said that all studies on vertebrate embryology that came out after Karl Baer could be considered as additions and amendments to his work, but they could not give anything as new and important as the results obtained by Baer.

Asking himself the question about the essence of development, Karl Baer answered it: all development consists in the transformation of something that previously existed. “This proposition is so simple and artless,” says another scholar, “that it seems almost meaningless. And yet it matters a lot."

Travels Carl Baer

In 1837, Baer led a scientific expedition to Novaya Zemlya, where no naturalist had ever been before, on the schooner Krotov. The main task this expedition, unlike all previous ones to Novaya Zemlya, was the study of its geological structure familiarization with fauna and flora. The Baer expedition, in addition to him, included the naturalist Leman A.A. ,

Geologist Reder and laboratory assistant Filippov. In Arkhangelsk, it turned out that the Krotov schooner was so small that it could not take all the expedition members, and even more so a live cow, which Baer intended to take as a supply of fresh meat. Subsequently, he wrote, not without humor, that "with the same success it was possible to load" Krotov "on a cow." We got out of the situation by agreeing with one of the Pomors, who was heading to Novaya Zemlya, to take part of the expedition members on their boat. In mid-June, we left Arkhangelsk, carried out botanical and zoological research in its vicinity, then, for the same purpose, visited several points in Lapland -

natural area in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Murmansk region. Russia and only in the second half of July they anchored off the coast of Novaya Zemlya -

western entrance to the Matochkin Shar Strait ( between the North and South Islands of Novaya Zemlya. The strait connects the Barents and Kara Seas). For several days, various natural-scientific studies were carried out, on July 31 they entered Matochkin Shar. Then we boarded a boat and got to the Kara Sea on it. Going on a boat trip, they violated one of the main commandments of polar explorers: "Going for a day, stock up on everything you need for a month." Intending to return to the ship by nightfall, the travelers did not stock up on anything necessary for a more or less long stay outside the ship. The treacherous Arctic weather immediately got them in big trouble. risen strong wind made it impossible to return by boat. The first days of August had to be spent in the rain, at a temperature of 4-5 ° C, without any roof over your head and the virtual absence of food. The return along the coast was impossible because of the impenetrable bare rocks rising directly from the water. Fortunately, we managed to meet Pomors, otherwise the journey could have ended tragically. Having left Matochkin Shar, we explored the south west coast New Earth, and On August 31 they left the archipelago and on September 11 they safely reached Arkhangelsk. Baer's expedition received excellent scientific results, becoming an important step in the study of the Arctic. She collected collections of up to 90 plant species and up to 70 invertebrate species. Geological research allowed us to conclude that Novaya Zemlya was formed in the Silurian and Devonian epochs. In 1838 Baer published the results of his research.

In subsequent years, Baer explored the islands of the Gulf of Finland (1839), the Kola Peninsula (1840), the Mediterranean Sea (1845-1846), the coast Baltic Sea(1851-1852), the Caspian region and the Caspian Sea (1853-1856), the Sea of ​​Azov (1862).

His "Caspian Studies" in eight parts is very rich scientific results. In this work of Baer, ​​the eighth part is most interesting - "On the General Law of the Formation of River Channels" - Baer's Law: rivers flowing in the direction of the meridian in the Northern Hemisphere wash away the right bank, in the Southern Hemisphere - the left, which is explained by the influence of the daily rotation of the Earth.

In the spring of 1857, Karl Baer returned to St. Petersburg. He felt already too old for long and tedious wanderings. Now Baer devoted himself mainly to anthropology.

In addition to anthropology, Karl Baer did not cease, however, to be interested in other branches of natural science, trying to promote their development and dissemination in Russia. So, he took an active part in the creation and organization of the Russian Entomological Society and became its first president. Although Baer enjoyed general respect and had no shortage of friendly society, he did not particularly like life in Petersburg. Therefore, he was looking for opportunities to leave Petersburg and go somewhere to live out the rest of his life in peace, devoting himself exclusively to his scientific inclinations, without any official duties.

Baer was one of the founders of the IRGO, and in 1861 he was awarded the highest award of the IRGO - the Big Konstantinovsky Medal.

August 18, 1864 a solemn celebration took place at the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences - 50th anniversary of scientific activity of K.M. Baer. The emperor granted the hero of the day a lifetime annual pension of 3,000 rubles. The Academy of Sciences established the Baer Prize for outstanding research in the natural sciences, and he himself presented a large medal with a bas-relief image of his head and an inscription around it: “Starting with an egg, he showed a person to a person”.

After the anniversary, Karl Baer considered his career in St. Petersburg finally completed and decided to move to Dorpat (Tartu), because if he went abroad, he would be too far away from his children. By this time, Baer's family had been greatly reduced: his only daughter, Maria, married Dr. von Lingen in 1850, and of his six sons, only three survived; Baer's wife died in the spring of 1864. In the early summer of 1867 he moved to his native university town.

The elderly scientist continued to be interested in science here, at rest. He prepared his unpublished works for publication and, as far as possible, followed the progress of knowledge. His mind was still as clear and active, but physical forces began to betray him more and more. On November 16, 1876, Karl Baer quietly died, and in 1886 a monument was erected in Tartu in his honor.

A little later, a similar monument was installed in the Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg.

Leman Alexander Adolfovich (1814-1842)– Dorpat (Tartu). Ptraveler, Ph.D. He died in Simbirsk at the age of 28. In 1837 he received an offer from prof. Baer, ​​who was his teacher, to join the expedition that was being prepared for Novaya Zemlya, and in the spring of 1837 made an expedition. Along the east coast White Sea, through Snezhnaya Gora, the expedition arrived on June 21 to the both coasts of Lapland, then, on July 17, to the western coast of Novaya Zemlya near the Matochkin Shar Strait. Returning to St. Petersburg in the autumn of the same year, Leman in 1838 was invited by V.A. Perovsky to explore the Orenburg region. In the winter of 1839, he made a trip to Khiva together with Perovsky through almost impassable masses of snow, in the spring of 1840 he went to the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea to Novo-Aleksandrovsk, in the vicinity of which he constantly made various excursions and collected rich materials; then he made a study of the southern slopes of the Urals and the steppes up to Zlatoust. Winter 1840-1841. Leman spent in Orenburg, busy putting the collected items in order. When in the spring of 1841 a mission of mining officials was sent to Bukhara, Leman joined it as a naturalist and spent more than a year in different parts of Bukhara. Lehman's researches, very valuable, were not published by him. Leman bequeathed some of his materials to the Academy of Sciences, he left his botanical collections to a professor of botany in Derpt Bung, the rest of the materials and travel descriptions were published after his death by his fellow academicians. His journey to Bukhara introduced academia with the almost unknown way of life of the Bukharans.

Karl Maksimovich Baer (1792–1876)

The famous naturalist - naturalist, founder of scientific embryology, geographer - traveler, explorer K. M. Baer was born on February 28, 1792 in the small town of Pipa, Iervinsky district, Estonian province.

His parents, considered nobles, came from a bourgeois environment. K. M. Baer spent his early childhood on the estate of his childless uncle, where he was left to his own devices. Until the age of 8, he was not even familiar with the alphabet. When he was eight years old, his father took him to his family, where he caught up with his sisters in reading, writing and arithmetic within three weeks. By the age of 10, under the guidance of a tutor, he mastered planimetry and learned how to compose topographic maps. At the age of 12, he knew how to use a plant guide and acquired solid skills in the art of compiling a herbarium.

In 1807, the father took his son to the noble school in Revel, and after the tests, he was accepted immediately into upper class. Excellent in his studies, the young man was fond of excursions, compiling herbariums and collections.

In 1810, K. M. Baer entered the medical faculty of Dorpat University, preparing for a career as a doctor. The stay at the university was interrupted in 1812 by Napoleon's invasion of Russia. K. M. Baer went to the Russian army as a doctor, but soon fell ill with typhus. When Napoleon's army was expelled from Russia, K. M. Baer returned to Dorpat to continue his studies.

K. M. Baer graduated from Dorpat University in 1814 and defended his dissertation “On epidemic diseases in Estonia”. However, not considering himself sufficiently prepared for the responsible and high role of a doctor, he went to improve himself abroad, to Vienna. But those medical luminaries, for the sake of which the young doctor came to Vienna, could not satisfy him in any way. The most famous of them - the therapist Gildenbrandt - became famous, among other things, for not prescribing any drugs to his patients, as he was testing the "expectant treatment method."

Disillusioned with medicine, KM Baer intends to become a zoologist and anatomist. Having collected his belongings, K. M. Baer went on foot to Würzburg to the famous anatomist - Professor Dellinger. At the very first meeting, Dellinger, in response to the desire expressed by K. M. Baer to improve in zootomy (animal anatomy), said: “I don’t read it this semester ... But why lecture you? Bring here some animal, then another, dissect it and examine its structure. K. M. Baer bought leeches in a pharmacy and began his zootomy workshop.

A lucky chance rescued him: he received an offer from Professor Burdakh from Derpt to take the place of an assistant dissector in anatomy at the Department of Physiology in Koenigsberg, where Burdakh had moved by that time.

How Deputy Professor K.M. Baer Began Reading Since 1817 independent course with beautifully staged demonstrations and immediately won fame for himself; Burdakh himself repeatedly attended his lectures. Soon, K. M. Baer organized a wonderful anatomical study, and then a large zoological museum. His fame grew. He became a celebrity, and the University of Königsberg elected him as an ordinary professor and director of the Anatomical Institute. K. M. Baer showed exceptional creative fertility. He gave a number of courses and conducted a number of studies on animal anatomy. His research culminated in 1826 with a brilliant discovery that “completed the centuries-old work of natural scientists” (Academician V. I. Vernadsky): he discovered the egg of mammals and publicly demonstrated it in 1828 at the congress of natural scientists and doctors in Berlin. In order to get an idea of ​​the significance of this discovery, it is enough to say that the scientific embryology of mammals, and consequently of man, was completely impossible until that initial principle was discovered - the egg from which the embryo of a higher animal develops. This discovery is the immortal merit of KM Baer in the history of the natural sciences. In accordance with the spirit of the times, he wrote memoirs about this discovery on Latin and dedicated Russian Academy sciences in gratitude for his election in 1827 as a corresponding member. Many years later, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of K. M. Baer's scientific activity, the Russian Academy of Sciences presented him with a large medal with a bas-relief image of his head and an inscription around it: "Starting with an egg, he showed a person to a person."

In Koenigsberg, K. M. Baer received recognition from the entire scientific world, here he started a family, but he is drawn to his native land. He is in correspondence with Derpt and Vilna, where he is offered chairs. He dreams of a great journey through the north of Russia and in his letter to the first Russian circumnavigator, the famous Admiral Ivan Fedorovich Kruzenshtern, asks him to give him "the opportunity to anchor in his own country."

Soon he received an offer from the Russian Academy of Sciences to come to work in St. Petersburg, but the complete disorder of the academic institutions of that time did not allow him to immediately accept this offer, and he temporarily returns to Koenigsberg, where he leads, in his own words, the life of a "hermit crab" immersed in science. Years of strenuous work had severely undermined his health. The Prussian Ministry of Public Education found fault with him on literally every occasion. Minister von Altenstein officially reproached him with the fact that his scientific research was expensive, since K. M. Baer spent on his immortal research on the history of the development of the chicken ... 2000 eggs. Conflicts with those in power grew. K. M. Baer asked St. Petersburg about the possibility of his coming to work at the Academy of Sciences and in response to this in 1834 he was elected a member. In the same year, he left Koenigsberg with his family. As he himself wrote, “having decided to exchange Prussia for Russia, he was animated only by the desire to benefit his homeland.”

What did K. M. Baer do in embryology? Despite the fact that in the XVII and XVIII centuries Many leading researchers took part in the development of the doctrine of the embryonic development of animals, but they failed to advance the research significantly. It was generally accepted that in the germ cells there is a ready-made embryo with a completely developed parts bodies are, in fact, an adult organism, only a tiny size.

The science of that time was very much mistaken, believing that embryonic development is nothing but the simple growth of a small organism to an adult state. There was supposedly no transformation taking place.

K. M. Baer finally buried these misconceptions and created a truly scientific embryology. His "History of the Development of Animals", according to an outstanding colleague of Charles Darwin - Thomas Haeckel, is "a work that contains the deepest philosophy of zoology and even biology in general", and famous zoologist Albert Kelliker claimed that this book is "the best of all that is in the embryological literature of all times and peoples."

Investigating the development of the chicken, K. M. Baer traced the picture of its development step by step. The process of embryonic development first appeared before the astonished gaze of naturalists in all its simplicity and grandeur.

After moving to St. Petersburg, the young academician dramatically changed both his scientific interests and his way of life. In a new place, he is attracted and beckoned by the boundless expanses of Russia. The vast, but little explored Russia of that time required a comprehensive study. K. M. Baer becomes a geographer - a traveler and researcher of the country's natural resources.

Throughout his life, K. M. Baer made many trips within Russia and abroad. His first journey to Novaya Zemlya, undertaken by him in 1837, lasted only four months. Circumstances were extremely unfavorable for the journey. Capricious winds delayed sailing. The sailing schooner "Krotov", placed at the disposal of K. M. Baer, ​​was extremely small and not suitable for expeditionary purposes. Topographic surveys and meteorological observations of the expedition of K. M. Baer gave an idea of ​​the relief and climate of Novaya Zemlya. It was found that the Novaya Zemlya upland is geologically a continuation of the Ural Range. The expedition did a lot in the field of knowledge of the fauna and flora of Novaya Zemlya. K. M. Baer was the first naturalist to visit these islands. He collected the most valuable collections of animals and plants living there.

In subsequent years, K. M. Baer made dozens of trips and expeditions not only “through the cities and towns” of Russia, but also abroad. Here is a far from complete list of the most important of these journeys. In 1839, together with his son, he made an expedition to the islands of the Gulf of Finland, and in 1840 to Lapland. In 1845 he made a trip to the Mediterranean Sea. During the period 1851-1857, he undertook a number of expeditions to Lake Peipsi and the Baltic, to the Volga Delta and the Caspian Sea in order to study the state of fishing in these areas. In 1858, K. M. Baer again traveled abroad to the congress of natural scientists and doctors. In subsequent years (1859 and 1861) he again travels around Europe.

They predicted disaster Aral Sea back in 1861, when he traveled to those parts to find out the reasons for its shallowing. Moreover, he refuted the version, inflated for mercantile purposes by the coastal company, that this shallowing occurs due to ballast thrown from incoming ships. K. M. Baer's passion for travel was indefatigable: being already an octogenarian old man, he dreamed of a big expedition to the Black Sea.

The most productive and the richest in its consequences was his large expedition to the Caspian Sea, which lasted four years with short breaks (1853-1856).

Predatory fishing in the mouth of the Volga and in the Caspian - an area that provided a fifth of all the fish production of then Russia - led to a catastrophic drop in fish catch and threatened with the loss of this main fishing base. To study the fish resources of the Caspian, a large expedition was organized, headed by the sixty-year-old K. M. Baer. He furrowed the Caspian in several directions from Astrakhan to the coast of Persia. He established that the reason for the fall in the catch was not at all the impoverishment of nature, but the predatory methods of fishing and the irrational primitive methods of its processing, which he called "the insane waste of the gifts of nature." K. M. Baer came to the conclusion that the cause of all disasters is a misunderstanding that existing methods fishing did not give the fish the opportunity to breed, as they caught it before spawning (spawning) and this doomed the fishery to an inevitable fall. K. M. Baer demanded the introduction state control for the protection of fish stocks and their restoration.

Practical conclusions based on the work of this expedition, K. M. Baer outlined in his famous “Proposals for best device Caspian Fisheries”, in which he developed a number of rules for “the most beneficial use of fishery products”. Through the efforts of K. M. Baer, ​​the new Caspian herring replaced the “Dutch” herring, the import of which to us stopped due to Crimean campaign. Having taught how to harvest the Caspian herring, K. M. Baer increased the national wealth of the country by millions of rubles.

K. M. Baer was one of the initiators and founders of the Russian Geographical Society, in which he was elected first vice - president.

"How can you keep demanding educated person to know in a row all the seven kings of Rome, whose existence is certainly problematic, and not to consider it a shame if he has no idea about the structure of his own body ... I don’t know a task more worthy of a free and thinking person like an exploration of oneself.

In addition, K. M. Baer worked a lot in the field of craniology - the study of the skull.

He also laid the foundation for the craniological museum of the Academy of Sciences, which is one of the richest collections of this kind in the world. Of all his other works, we will focus only on his research on the Papuans and Alfurs, which, in turn, inspired our outstanding explorer and traveler Miklouho-Maclay to study these peoples in New Guinea.

K. M. Baer lectured on anatomy at the Medico-Surgical Academy and organized an Anatomical Institute for the training of doctors. As its leader, he attracted our famous compatriot, outstanding surgeon and a brilliant anatomist - N. I. Pirogov. K. M. Baer wrote a number of brilliant articles for the general public on anthropology and zoology.

K. M. Baer was an extremely cheerful person, who was very fond of communicating with people and retained this trait until his death. Despite the general admiration and admiration for his talent, he was extremely modest and attributed many of his discoveries, such as the discovery of the egg of mammals, to exceptionally sharp eyesight in the years of his youth. External honors did not appeal to him. He was a staunch enemy of titles. During his long life, he had to unwittingly attend many anniversaries and celebrations organized in his honor, but he was always dissatisfied with them and felt like a victim. “It is much better when you are scolded, then, by at least, you can object, but with praise this is impossible and you have to endure everything that is being done to you, ”complained K. M. Baer. But he was very fond of arranging festivities and anniversaries for others.

Caring attitude to the needs of others, helping in misfortune, participating in the restoration of the priority of a forgotten scientist, restoring the good name of an unjustly injured person, up to help from personal funds, were commonplace in this life big man. So, he took N. I. Pirogov under his protection from the attacks of the press and personally helped the Hungarian scientist Reguli to complete his scientific work.

K. M. Baer highly appreciated the merits of the common people in business scientific research of their country. In one of his letters to Admiral Kruzenshtern, he wrote: “The common people almost always paved the way scientific research. The whole of Siberia with its shores is open in this way. The government has always only appropriated to itself what the people discovered. Thus, Kamchatka and Kurile Islands. Only later they were examined by the government ... Entrepreneurial people from the common people for the first time discovered the entire chain of islands in the Bering Sea and the entire Russian coast of the North - Western America. Daredevils from the common people for the first time passed the sea strait between Asia and America, were the first to find the Lyakhovsky Islands and visited deserts for many years New Siberia before Europe knew anything about their existence ... Everywhere since the time of Bering, scientific navigation has only followed in their footsteps ... "

He was a great connoisseur of history and literature and even wrote several articles on mythology.

In 1852, K. M. Baer, ​​due to his advanced age, retired and moved to Dorpat.

In 1864, the Academy of Sciences, celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of his scientific activity, presented him with a large medal and established the Baer Prize for outstanding achievements in the field of natural sciences.

Before last day K. M. Baer was interested in science, although his eyes were so weak that he had to resort to the help of a reader and scribe. Karl Maksimovich Baer died on November 28, 1876 quietly, as if falling asleep. Exactly 10 years later, on November 28, 1886, the citizens of the city in which the great scientist was born, studied, lived and died erected a monument to him by Academician Opekushin, a copy of which is in former building Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg.

KM Baer was one of the greatest zoologists in the world. Through his work, he initiated new era in the science of animals and thus left an indelible mark on the history of the natural sciences.

Major life events

1807 - K. M. Baer enters the noble school in Revel, where, after tests, he was immediately accepted into the upper class.

1810 - K. M. Baer entered the medical faculty of Dorpat University.

1814 - K. M. Baer graduated from Dorpat University and defended his dissertation "On epidemic diseases in Estonia."

1816 - K. M. Baer received a position as a dissector - an assistant to anatomy at the Department of Physiology in Koenigsberg.

1826 - K. M. Baer discovered the egg of mammals and publicly demonstrated it in 1828 at the Congress of Naturalists and Physicians in Berlin.

1827 - KM Baer was elected a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

1837 - The first journey of K. M. Baer to Novaya Zemlya.

1839 - Together with his son KM Baer made an expedition to the islands of the Gulf of Finland.

1840 - Expedition to Lapland.

1845 Trip to the Mediterranean.

1852 - K. M. Baer, ​​due to his advanced age, retired and moved to Derpt.

1853–1856 - Big expedition of KM Baer to the Caspian Sea.

1864 - The Academy of Sciences, celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the scientific activity of KM Baer, ​​presented him with a large medal and established the Baer Prize for outstanding achievements in the field of natural sciences.

Who is Karl Maksimovich Baer, ​​what is his contribution to biology, what is this scientist known for?

Baer Karl Maksimovich, born Karl Ernst von Baer. Years of life 1792-1876. The future naturalist was born into a family of Baltic Germans in the Estland province, now Estonia.

He went down in history as the founder of embryology. He was engaged comparative analysis patterns of intrauterine development of embryos belonging to different biological species. In their scientific papers he formulated the foundations for the formation of the embryo, which were later named in his honor "the so-called Baer's laws."

Karl Baer - Brief Biography

Karl's parents belonged to a well-known noble family. The family was considered prosperous at that time. From childhood, home teachers were engaged with the future scientist, teaching him mathematics, geography and foreign languages. Obviously, even in early childhood Karl was a keen student and with genuine interest comprehended the basics of many scientific disciplines which set him apart from his peers.

From 1810 Karl studied medicine in Dorpat and Wurzburg. He was diligent in his studies, comprehended medical disciplines with honors. Just 4 years after graduating from medical school, the scientist gets a job as a dissector (pathologist) at the University of Königsberg, where the young specialist is fond of comparative anatomy.

The range of interests of Karl Baer is not limited to the study of human anatomy, although this is precisely what is included in his duties as an employee anatomical theater. The scientist is fascinated by the zoology of invertebrates and embryology, which at that time had not yet been isolated into an independent biological discipline.

In 1826, Karl Baer headed the department of anatomy at the University of Königsberg. In the same year he received the degree of a member Imperial Academy Petersburg, and after only a year becomes a professor at the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.

In 1834, Baer moved to Russia, after which the scientist's lifestyle changed to a large extent. He is fascinated by the gigantic almost unexplored expanses of the vast country, the nature of which at that time was practically unexplored.

At this time, Baer became a geographer and traveler, a researcher of the richest living world in Russia. So in 1837, the scientist led a scientific expedition to Novaya Zemlya. In the course of this natural testing activity, a group of scientists discovered about 90 new plants and about 70 species of invertebrates unknown until now.

Under his leadership, many scientific expeditions. The scientist studied the animal and vegetable world Gulf of Finland, Kola Peninsula, Transcaucasia, Volga region, Black Sea, Azov, Caspian and so on.

The results of this expedition had not only scientific, but also practical value. Thanks to his discoveries, the foundations were laid for the formation of fisheries as a field of applied human activity.

Practical activities Baer graduated in 1864, officially announcing this within the walls of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. In the same year, the scientist moved to his historical homeland in Dorpat, where 12 years later he dies in his sleep. In the last years of his life, he completely withdrew from scientific activity and devoted all his time to his friends and relatives.

Baer's contribution to the development of science

Baer first discovered the egg in humans. Studying the features of the development of embryos belonging to different types multicellular animals, he saw certain similarities that are present in the early stages of development and disappear over time.

According to the teachings of Baer, ​​the embryo first develops traits characteristic of the type, then the class, then the detachment, genus, and finally the species. In the early stages of their development, embryos belonging to different species and even orders have a lot of similar features.

In addition, Baer determined the main stages in the development of the embryo of multicellular animals: the timing and features of the formation and growth of the neural tube, as well as the spinal column, in addition, he studied the structural features of other vital organs.

Baer was one of the first to suggest that all racial differences of a person are formed solely under the influence of features environment. To study the features of the development of ethno-territorial groups of a person, the scientist for the first time used the methods of craniology (the study of structural features of the skull).

Karl Baer has always been a supporter of the species unity of man and criticized any ideas and attempts to prove the superiority of one race to another. For his tough position regarding species unity, the views of the scientist were criticized more than once by other more reactionary colleagues.

Having said that Baer contributed to biology, one cannot fail to note his contribution as a scientist to geography. The so-called Baer's law states that rivers flowing along the meridian will always have a steeper west bank due to constant washing away by the current. Karl Baer is one of the founders of the Russian Geographical Society.

A cape on Novaya Zemlya is named after this great naturalist, in addition, a whole range of hills in the Caspian lowland, as well as one of the islands in the Taimyr Bay.

Conclusion

Karl Maksimovich Baer, ​​whose biography can not tell everything about this person, approached nature as a whole. He studied the invisible forces that make every organism develop, while not violating the principles of harmony, unity and integrity of the universe.