Robert Wiedersheim

German anatomist and biologist

Robert Ernst Eduard Wiedersheim (21 April 1848 – 12 July 1923) was a German anatomist who is famous for publishing a list of 86 "vestigial organs" in his book The Structure of Man: An Index to His Past History.

Wiedersheim's father was Eduard Friedrich Wiedersheim (1819–1882), a medical doctor and naturalist. His mother, Bertha Friederike Wiedersheim (née Otto, 1825–1848) died a few days after his birth. During his school years Wiedersheim showed an interest in botany and zoology. However, he was not a good student and barely passed the final examination. Initially commencing a science degree at Lausanne in 1868 Wiedersheim switched after one semester to a medical degree at Tübingen, following his father's wishes. He studied at Tübingen from 1868 to 1870 under Franz Leydig. In 1871 he moved his studies to Würzburg and the following year to Freiburg. In 1872 Wiedersheim finished a doctoral thesis on the finer structural relations of the glands in the gizzard of birds, a subject suggested to him by Carl Hasse while in Würzburg. In 1873 Wiedersheim married Mathilde (Tilla) Sophie Gruber with whom he had one son, Walter Wiedersheim. After finishing his studies Wiedersheim returned to Würzburg where he worked as an assistant to Albert von Koelliker until 1876. He became an expert in comparative anatomy and published a number of relevant textbooks. He also collected early photographs and documents of scientists of his day. In 1883 Wiedersheim became a full professor of anatomy and succeeded Alexander Ecker as the director of Freiburg's Institute of Anatomy and Comparative Anatomy. and the resulting work is still considered a standard reference on anuran anatomy. A translation by George Haslam of the first two volumes of Die Anatomie des Frosches, including considerable new material, was published under the title The anatomy of the frog in 1889.

In 1882 Wiedersheim published a book entitled Lehrbuch der vergleichende Anatomie der Wirbelthiere or Elements of the comparative anatomy of vertebrates. This book and its subsequent edition proved very popular and a shorter outline version was published, this was also popular and went through several editions, gaining in size with each edition. In 1902 this outline version superseded the original and was published as Vergleichende Anatomie der Wirbelthiere or Comparative anatomy of vertebrates. English editions under both titles were translated by W. N. Parker an anatomist at University College of South Wales, now Cardiff University.

The structure of Man: An Index to His Past History deals with various anatomical elements of the human body and attempts to frame them in an evolutionary context with other vertebrates. Wiedersheim himself suggests in the introduction that this work is in the same vein as Thomas Huxley's earlier Evidence as to man's place in nature. The structure of Man began as a much shorter academic treatise, Der Bau der Menschen, produced in 1887 with a small intended circulation. In its original form it lacked any illustrations and gave only a brief overview of many of its topics. Thanks to a high degree of interest and correspondence regarding the work Wiedersheim decided to publish a revised and expanded version. The German second edition was published in 1893 with an English translation by Henry and Matilda Bernard following in 1895. As part of the book Wiedersheim included a list of the organs discussed in the text which might be considered vestigial. He writes, "comparative morphology points not only to the essentially similar plan of organization of the bodies of all vertebrates, but also to the occurrence in them of certain organs, or parts of organs, now known as 'vestigial.' "By such organs are meant those which were formerly of greater physiological significance than at present."

Robert Wiedersheim is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of chameleon, Trioceros wiedersheimi.