ABSTRACT
Although the term generation has become obsolete, it originally encompassed some of the most exciting aspects of modern biology-reproduction, embryology, development and differentiation, regeneration of parts, and genetics. Long before philosophers began debating basic questions about the ways in which new organisms were produced, human beings had been tending crops, pollinating plants, selecting desirable traits in domesticated animals, and castrating both humans and animals. Thus, early theories of generation were built on a rich but confusing collection of facts, folklore, and myths.
