In 1895, Roux set out the problems confronting the new subject of experimental embryology and commented that, although he and his peers intended to simplify what was clearly a very complicated set of events, they knew so little about development that they would be unable to elucidate the underlying mechanisms without a great deal of work. Moreover, because they were so ignorant, they could not know which approaches would be the most helpful in their attempts to gain understanding. The initial result of any research in the area would therefore be to make the situation appear even more complicated than it already was and it would take some.
