| 释义 |
epigenesis Biol.|ɛpɪˈdʒɛnɪsɪs|
[f. Gr. ἐπί upon + γένεσις generation: see genesis. The word is used by W. Harvey, Exercitationes 1651, p. 148, and in the English Anatomical Exercitations 1653, p. 272. It is explained to mean ‘partium super-exorientium additamentum’, ‘the additament of parts budding one out of another’.]
The formation of an organic germ as a new product; theory of epigenesis: the theory that the germ is brought into existence (by successive accretions), and not merely developed, in the process of reproduction. Also fig.
The opposite theory was formerly known as the ‘theory of evolution’; to avoid the ambiguity of this name, it is now spoken of chiefly as the ‘theory of preformation’, sometimes as that of ‘encasement’ or ‘emboîtement’.
1798A. F. M. Willich Elem. Crit. Philos. 156 Epigenesis of pure Reason has been called the Kantian explanation concerning the coincidence of the pure intellectual conceptions..with the objects of experience. 1807Edin. Rev. XI. 81 The Epigenesis..is what most physiologists now assume as the only true theory of generation. 1831Blackw. Mag. XXIX. 68 The two styles of conversation corresponded to the two theories of generation—one (Johnson's) to the theory of Preformation (or Evolution)—the other (Burke's) to the theory of Epigenesis. 1847Lewes Hist. Philos. (1867) Proleg. §3 With Mind, as with Body, there is not preformation or pre-existence, but evolution and epigenesis. 1879tr. Haeckel's Evol. Man I. ii. 40 Caspar Friedrich Wolff..with his new Theory of Epigenesis gave the death-blow to the entire Theory of Preformation.
Hence epiˈgenesist, one who holds the theory of epigenesis.
1816Keith Phys. Bot. II. 364 This is the theory of the epigenesists. |