A sensational discovery

Nikolai Miklucho-Maclay drew this representation of a human skull to illustrate notes of a lecture by Carl Gegenbaur.

Image: RGO St. Peterburg/Russland

“This discovery is a sensation!” says Prof. Uwe Hoßfeld of Friedrich Schiller University Jena, describing unique and important 19^th century lecture notes that have come to light. 

Biology educationalist Hoßfeld and his colleague, Dr Georgy S. Levit, discovered notes from lectures given in Jena by the anatomist Carl Gegenbaur and the zoologist and researcher on evolution Ernst Haeckel. Both academics were active at the University of Jena in the middle of the 19^th century. The writings were originally discovered in 2018 and were part of the estate of Russian explorer Nikolai Miklucho-Maclay, which was stored in the archive of the Russian Geographical Society in St. Petersburg. Together with other scientists, Hoßfeld and Levit have now published the valuable lecture notes.

Nikolai Miklucho-Maclay broke with Ernst Haeckel

“The notes give us fascinating glimpses into the history and visualisation of zoology and comparative anatomy at that time,” says Hoßfeld. The two texts are the only notes on the teachings of these authors that have been handed down to the present day. They show the state of knowledge and the methods used for disseminating that knowledge in the fields of zoology and comparative anatomy in the mid-19^th century, specifically in 1865. The author of the notes was Haeckel’s student Nikolai Miklucho-Maclay, who as an explorer travelled to New Guinea for the first time in 1870, to study the indigenous Papuan population. Miklucho-Maclay had a tense and complex relationship with Ernst Haeckel. He was a student of Haeckel’s and accompanied him as an assistant on expeditions. Later, however, it is presumed that they fell out because the Russian scientist questioned Haeckel’s views on race in humans, and scientifically disproved them.

“Miklucho-Maclay can rightly be seen as the first empirical anti-racist in the natural sciences,” says Prof. Hoßfeld. The Russian’s observations and experiences with the Papuans showed the error of Haeckel’s assumptions that contemporary humans could be divided into various levels of development and therefore into different human “species” or “races”. Ironically, it was Ernst Haeckel himself who had postulated that in order to acquire scientific knowledge, it was essential to observe and study organisms in their natural environment. Nikolai Miklucho-Maclay fulfilled these criteria and also stayed several more times with the people of New Guinea.