Burdach’s great textbook of physiology was planned to run to 10 vols., but the death of his wife quenched his enthusiasm for the task. Parts of the text were written by von Baer, Rathke, Johannes Müller, R. Wagner and others, under the direction of Burdach. Von Baer’s contribution includes material also published the same year in Ueber Entwicklungsgeschichte der Thiere. Burdach’s unsatisfactory editing of it for Die Physiologie stimulated von Baer to have his own separate book published. See No. 479.

Rathke’s most notable discovery was of structures homologous with gill slits in bird and mammalian embryos. He discredited the vertebral theory of the skull.

Important description of the pituitary.

“Rathke’s pouch”, a diverticulum from the embryonic buccal cavity.