Der Einfluß gelber und schwarzer Umgebung der Larve auf die Fleckenzeichnung des Vollmolches von Salamandra maculosa Laur. forma typica

Abstract

Hans Przibram(unter Mitwirkung von Jan Dembowski).(.h_us der biologisehen Versuehsanstalt der Akademie der Wissenseha~ten in Wien [zoologische Abteiiung].) 1) Mi~ Tafel //I--V.

Paul Kammerer and epigenetics – a reappraisal of his experiments

“…Nevertheless, several authors who aimed at repeating Kammerer's experiments did indeed work with larvae from the beginning. In all studies, the colour adaption of the salamander larvae was still recognizable after metamorphosis, and the degree of this adaptation was also considerably enhanced in comparison to Kammerer's experiments, in which the salamanders needed years to reach a comparable stage (Šećerov, 1914;Herbst, 1919;von Frisch, 1920;Boulenger, 1921;Przibram with Dembowski, 1922). However, Kammerer's colleagues Šećerov (1914Šećerov ( ), von Frisch (1920, and Przibram with Dembowski (1922) had a mere intragenerational research focus and stopped their experiments not long after the metamorphosis of their larvae.…”

“…According to Megušar's supervisor Hans Przibram, his experiments were "inapt" (Przibram in Hirschmüller, 1991, p. 42) and performed under insufficient light conditions. Perhaps also for other shortcomings, Megušar's report on this experiment was not deemed worthy of publication (Przibram with Dembowski, 1922). In addition, Megušar must have suffered from mental confusion around the time he launched his attack on Kammerer and was transferred to an asylum shortly after (Przibram, 1917(Przibram, , 1926Przibram with Dembowski, 1922;Wettstein in Hirschmüller, 1991, p. 42 hard to fully understand which material he worked with, how precisely the experimental conditions were applied, and how exactly the results were obtained.…”

“…Initially, their skin strongly responded to the exposition of black and white environments, but with age, the animals became lighter in colour regardless of the substrates' colour. Hence, because Sanchez et al (2019, p. 28) terminated their experiment already "approximately 30 days or 98 days" after metamorphosis, their results are open to the same criticism that Herbst (1919Herbst ( , 1924 addressed at his contemporary fellow researchers who claimed having replicated Kammerer's initial experiments, but seemingly terminated their experiments too early after the metamorphosis of their salamanders (Šećerov, 1914;von Frisch 1920;Przibram with Dembowski, 1922). In a proper sense, Sanchez et al (2019) only repeated and confirmed the experiments of the latter authors, and only the initial stages of those performed by Herbst (1919Herbst ( , 1924 as well as by Boulenger and MacBride (Boulenger, 1921;MacBride, 1925).…”

“…Consequently, manual corrections or retouches of photographs shouldn't be regarded a bigger problem (Gliboff, 2005). Because it was apparently difficult to produce high-quality photographs of salamanders about 100 years ago, many authors who worked with them presented drawings, sometimes being hand-coloured (e.g., Šećerov, 1914;Herbst, 1919;von Frisch, 1920;Boulenger, 1921;Przibram with Dembowski, 1922;MacBride, 1925;Herbst & Ascher, 1927;Noble, 1931). More importantly, the 19 salamander photographs contained in Kammerer (1911) were not handcoloured at all, and only six were "slightly" retouched.…”

Controlling and culturing diversity: Experimental zoology before World War II and Vienna's Biologische Versuchsanstalt

“…His goal was to render the process of speciation accessible to experimental analysis in a program of “experimental phylogenesis.” But, after the War, though a few scientists continued to address the problem, Przibram remained skeptical about plasticity in heredity, and most experiments instead exaggerated the external influences impinging upon organisms to isolate conditions that could alter ontogeny. Using the same factors proposed by Davenport 15 years earlier, which Przibram had also used to structure his textbooks on Embryogenese (1907a) and Phylogenese (1910a), the Department's zoologists, for example, explored the impact of chemical factors on the coloration of insects (Przibram, ), amphibians, and frogs (Kammerer, ; Przibram, ), of changes in light on butterfly wings (Weiss, ) or their pupation (Brecher, ), and the effects of exaggerated temperature conditions (Bierens de Haan, '22a,b; Congdon, ).…”