Abstract
Originating in the work of Ernst Haeckel and Wilhelm Preyer, and advanced by a Prussian embryologist, Wilhelm Roux, the idea of struggle for existence between body parts helped to establish a framework, in which population cell dynamics rather than a predefined harmony guides adaptive changes in an organism. Intended to provide a causal-mechanical view of functional adjustments in body parts, this framework was also embraced later by early pioneers of immunology to address the question of vaccine effectiveness and pathogen resistance. As an extension of these early efforts, Elie Metchnikoff established an evolutionary vision of immunity, development, pathology, and senescence, in which phagocyte-driven selection and struggle promote adaptive changes in an organism. Despite its promising start, the idea of somatic evolution lost its appeal at the turn of the twentieth century giving way to a vision, in which an organism operates as a genetically uniform, harmonious entity.
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Notes
Versed in German literature, Delage introduced the work of Roux to his French evolutionist colleagues, including Le Dantec, who attacked Roux, citing him indirectly through Delage’s publications (Dantec, 1896).
Similarities between the ideas of Roux and Metchnikoff are highlighted by the fact that Roux already back in 1881 speculated that white blood cells might operate as tissue remodeling cells, “dissolving” the organism’s own fibers and adaptively transforming connective tissues (Roux, 1881, p. 185).
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Acknowledgements
I am very grateful to Professor Alfred I. Tauber for his extensive comments and critical reading of the manuscript. His helpful suggestions and feedback were essential in shaping the ideas expressed in the paper. I would also like to thank Professor Irun Cohen for his guidance in the field of immunology and theoretical biology.
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Swiatczak, B. Evolution within the body: the rise and fall of somatic Darwinism in the late nineteenth century. HPLS 45, 8 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40656-023-00566-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40656-023-00566-7