Christian Reiß

The history of the oldest self-sustaining laboratory animal: 150 years of axolotl research.

Today the Mexican axolotl is critically endangered in its natural habitat in lakes around Mexico City, but thrives in research laboratories around the world, where it is used for research on development, regeneration, and evolution. Here, we concentrate on the early history of the axolotl as a laboratory animal to celebrate that the first living axolotls arrived in Paris in 1864, 150 years ago. Maybe surprisingly, at first the axolotl was distributed across Europe without being tied to specific research questions, and amateurs engaged in acclimatization and aquarium movements played an important role for the rapid proliferation of the axolotl across the continent. But the aquarium also became an important part of the newly established laboratory, where more and more biological and medical research now took place. Early scientific interest focused on the anatomical peculiarities of the axolotl, its rare metamorphosis, and whether it was a larva or an adult. Later, axolotl data was used to argue both for (by August Weismann and others) and against (by e.g., Albert von Kölliker) Darwinism, and the axolotl even had a brief history as a laboratory animal used in a failed attempt to prove Lysenkoism in Jena, Germany. Nowadays, technical developments such as transgenic lines, and the very strong interest in stem cell and regeneration research has again catapulted the axolotl into becoming an important laboratory animal.

No evolution, no heredity, just development—Julius Schaxel and the end of the Evo–Devo agenda in Jena, 1906–1933: a case study

Julius Schaxel is an almost forgotten figure in the history of early twentieth century biology. By focusing on his life and work, I would like to illustrate several central developments in that period of history of biology. Julius Schaxel was an early representative and organizer of theoretical biology, discussing and criticizing both Wilhelm Roux’s mechanism and Hans Driesch’s vitalism. In addition to his theoretical work, Schaxel also did experimental research on developmental issues to support his critique. In this paper, special emphasis is made on the negotiating practice of Schaxel, which he used to establish a new area of biological research and a new audience for that area. In contrast to these new fields, Schaxel can be also portrayed as the endpoint of a research tradition investigating ontogeny and phylogeny together, which today is called Evo–Devo. Following Garland Allen’s dialectical processes that led to the decline of the Evo–Devo research agenda, Schaxel’s example is used to investigate these processes.

Gateway, Instrument, Environment

ZusammenfassungTrotz seiner großen Verbreitung in den Lebenswissenschaften wurde dem Aquarium bisher wenig wissenschafts- und technikhistorische Aufmerksamkeit zuteil. Dies ist nicht zuletzt durch den Umstand begründet, dass das Aquarium und seine Geschichte bisher größtenteils als außerwissenschaftlich aufgefasst wurden. Dabei spielen so unterschiedliche Kontexte wie Akklimatisierung, Amateurnaturkunde und bürgerliche Populärkultur eine wichtige Rolle. Gleichzeitig ist die Entwicklung des Aquariums aber auch eng mit der Geschichte der Lebenswissenschaften verbunden. Mit Blick auf die zweite Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts verstehe ich das Aquarium als techno-natural assemblage, in der Technologie, Kultur und Natur zu einem künstlichen Naturraum verbunden sind. Seine Geschichte beginnt in der britischen Amateurnaturkunde und der französischen Akklimatisierungsbewegung. Im Deutschland des späten 19. Jahrhunderts entwickelte sich das Aquarium zu einem Massenphänomen. Gleichzeitig hielt es Einzug in die Lebenswissenschaften, wo es als Einfallstor, Instrument und Umwelt Verwendung fand. Wie sich zeigt, ist das Aquarium eine hochgradig konstruierte Technologie, die sich aus einer Verbindung unterschiedlicher Traditionen herausgebildet und das Leben in die Lebenswissenschaften gebracht hat.

Introduction to the autobiography of Julius Schaxel

Personal notes, such as laboratory notebooks or, as in this case, an autobiography, are among the most seductive sources for the historian of science. They promise insights only rarely granted in the course of historiographical research and, at the same time, pose severe problems, when it comes to critical assessment of the sources. Whereas on the one side autobiographies offer a look into the author’s mind, there is on the other side the problem that they are always written in retrospect and with a specific motivation concerning their content. Keeping this in mind, Schaxel’s autobiography represents a fascinating insight into an important but almost forgotten figure in the history of early 20th century biology. As Nick Hopwood has previously shown for his scientificpolitical activities (Hopwood, 1997) and Christian Reiss now shows for his scientific agenda (Reiss, this issue), Schaxel was a very ambivalent figure, in whose biography central themes of early 20th century science and culture meet. In contrast to Hopwood’s and Reiss’ accounts, the autobiography is supposed to switch perspective and to let the author tell his story himself. That way, the picture given includes both Schaxel’s life and the interpretation Schaxel chose for telling the story. Additionally, an important and almost lost and forgotten source for the history of science is made available for study. We would like to express our thanks to Prof. Dr. Heinz Penzlin, who made a copy of the original manuscript, while working with it in the 1970s. This original manuscript was given to the archive of the Ernst-Haeckel-Haus by Schaxel’s widow, Erna Schaxel, after she returned from the Soviet Union. In the course of the years, the manuscript has disappeared under unknown circumstances. The translation of the German text into English has been done by Susan Springer.

150 Jahre Axolotl

Der mexikanische Axolotl hat eine lange Geschichte als Labortier. In den vergangenen 150 Jahren entwickelten sich diese Tiere von kolonialen Kuriositäten, die 1864 nach Paris kamen, zu einem wichtigen Organismus in der Evolutions‐ und Entwicklungsbiologie. Mittlerweile gibt es auf der ganzen Welt Millionen von Axolotln in Laboratorien und Heimaquarien, während der Lebensraum der Tiere in Mexiko immer weiter zurückgeht und die Spezies kurz vor dem Aussterben steht. In der Geschichte des Axolotls verbinden sich die Geschichte des Kolonialismus, des Aquariums und des Labors in der Zoologie mit der Naturgeschichte einer Spezies auf außergewöhnliche Art und Weise.