Theodor Eimer

Gustav Heinrich Theodor Eimer (22 February 1843 – 29 May 1898) was a German zoologist.

Life

Eimer was born in Stäfa. After spending his junior faculty years as prosector at Julius-Maximillian's University in Würzburg, he became in 1875 a professor of zoology and comparative anatomy at the University of Tübingen.

He is credited with popularizing the term orthogenesis (originally introduced by Wilhelm Haacke in 1893) to describe evolution directed in specific pathways due to restrictions in the direction of variation. Though his theories gained popularity in Germany in the 1880s, his work was not widely known in the English-speaking world until 1890 when his work Die Entstehung der Arten auf Grund von Vererben erworbener Eigenschaften nach den Gesetzen organischen Waschsens(1888) was translated by Joseph Thomas Cunningham as Organic Evolution as the Result of the inheritance of Acquired Characters according to the Laws of Organic Growth. This book was predominantly a Neo-Lamarckian polemic against August Weismann, his compatriot Neo-Darwinian. Eimer's later work, translated as On Orthogenesis, was a more rigidly orthogenetic text, whereas Organic Evolution maintained a plurality of mechanisms for species formation.

Podcasts:

PLAYLIST TIME:

Eimer

by: Orthodox Celts

Red owen made camp by the glen of two lakes
They all new his daughter was the fairest in the land
She had come of age it was time to choose a husband
A fine and noble warrior worthy of her hand
And the kings rode down from their great high mountains
And chieftains marched in from around the countryside
Princes even sailed from far across the water
To fight for the right to make Eimer their bride
Chorus
Eimer was fair as the wild flowers of morning
Eimer could sing like a lark in the warmth of May
Eimer could dance light as windblow gossamer
Put a sword in her hand though and she’d lay men in the clay
Conall MacMurta was poor but a bold one
He was proud as a stallion and skilled in the art of war
When Eimer saw him defeat the other champions
She knew that he was chosen one for her
Sighing the kings all road to their mountains
Weeping the chieftains marched back to the countryside
Brokenhearted the princes sailed across the water
When Conall son of Murta made Eimer his bride




×