Re: Info on Paul Kammerer

George Murphy (gmurphy@raex.com)
Wed, 14 Jan 1998 07:46:14 -0500

Inge Frette wrote:
>
> Hello folks,
>
> was just reading in a book yesterday about the Bohmian Quantum Mechanics,
> and the author of one chapter started with introducing the reader to a
> biologist earlier this century - Paul Kammerer. For this Bohmian defender
> of quantum mechanics the Kammerer case represented an example of
> "the scientific community's dismissing a challenging theoretical
> possibility without even seriously considering the evidence for it"
> Kammerer had problems with the Darwinism of the day and defended a kind
> of Lamarckian theory of inheritance.
> The non-acceptance of Kammerer's viewpoints in the scientific community
> drove him in the end to suicide - according to this writer.
>
> Is there anyone out there - biologists or science historians that can
> give me more information about this Kammerer, eventually direct me to
> some material to read about him.

Kammerer did more than just argue for transmission of acquired
characters. He carried out an extensive breeding program with (among
other organisms) toads, which he claimed demonstrated Lamarckian
inheritance, and his work did receive some serious attention from other
biologists. He committed suicide shortly after it was found that the
crucial feature of his last preserved specimen had been faked.
Arthur Koestler wrote a book about this, _The Case of the
Midwife Toad_ (London 1971, New York 1972 - but I can't lay hands on my
copy right now and don't know the publisher). Koestler also includes a
chapter (#3) on Kammerer in his book _The Roots of Coincidence_ (Vintage
Books, New York, 1973). Koestler believed that Kammerer was not the one
responsible for faking the data.
Kammerer also believed in "seriality and synchronicity" (the
title of the chapter in Koestler's second book), and this may be the
connection with Bohm's view of quantum mechanics. Kammerer's book on
this, _Das Gesetz der Serie_, is summarized by Koestler in an appendix
of _The case of the Midwife Toad_.
If I come across my copy of the latter book I'll send full
publishing info.

George L. Murphy
gmurphy@imperium.net
http://www.imperium.net/~gmurphy