A Critique of Pure (Genetic) Information

22 Chapter 1
Charles Otis Whitman was the first director of the MBL in 1888 and
founder of the Journal of Morphology. He rejected the autonomous-cell
theory of development and considered the organization of the egg to
represent the unity of the organism prior to any cell division. Rather than
focusing on the primacy of the nucleus his emphasis was on the organization
of the egg cytoplasm and its constitutive role in the generation of
differentiated cell lineages:
The organization of the egg is carried forward to the adult as an unbroken physiological
unity, or individuality, through all modifications and transformations.
The remarkable inversions of embryonic material in many eggs, all of which are
orderly arranged in advance of cleavage, and the interesting pressure experiments
of Driesch by which a new distribution of nuclei is forced upon the egg, without
any sensible modification of embryo, furnish, I believe, decisive proof of a definite
organization of the egg, prior to any cell formation (Whitman 1893).
Whitman emphasized the continuity of organization from one generation
to the next, with the organization of the egg cytoplasm constituting
the key link between generations. This approach to development gave
rise to studies which traced the origins and subsequent history of cell lineages,
beginning with identifying that part of the egg cytoplasm which
gives rise to particular cell lineages.
By contrast, Edmund Beecher Wilson, who was to become the leading
American cellular biologist during the first decade of the twentieth century,
staunchly defended the autonomous-cell-centered model of development.
If all cells are equal in their developmental potential, then
the cytoplasmic organization of the egg need not be granted a privileged
status. Both Whitman and Wilson were keenly aware of their
standpoints with respect to recasting the status of the preformationism
versus epigenesis debate, and both were motivated to avoid the perceived
extremes at either end (Maienshein 1987). This opposition came to be
played out largely in terms of nuclear versus cytoplasmic interactions,
with the former perceived as associated with the preformationist
pole and the latter with that of epigenesis. Wilson thus favored a model
which emphasized the influence of the nucleus on the developing cytoplasm,
whereas Whitman emphasized the role of the organized cytoplasm
in regulating the activity of the nucleus. Wilson’s position and
cognizance of its historical standpoint is ably indicated in his MBL
lecture of 1893: