Étienne Serres

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Étienne Renaud Augustin Serres (1786-1868) was a French physician and embryologist. In 1810 he received his medical doctorate in Paris, and afterwards worked at the Hôtel-Dieu de Paris and the Hôpital de la Pitié. Beginning in 1839 he taught comparative anatomy at the Jardin des Plantes. In 1841 he became president of the Académie des Sciences. Serres' quasi-evolutionary beliefs were influenced by the theories of Lorenz Oken (1779-1851), Georges Cuvier (1769-1832), and especially Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1772-1844).

With German anatomist, Johann Friedrich Meckel (1781-1833), the "Meckel-Serres Law" is derived. This was a theory that attempted to provide a link between comparative embryology and a "pattern of unification" in the organic world. It was based on a belief that within the entire animal kingdom there was a single unified body-type, and that during development, the organs of higher animals matched the forms of comparable organs in lower animals. This theory applied to both vertebrates and invertebrates, and also stated that higher animals go through embryological stages analogous to the adult stages of lower life-forms in the course of their development.

In the field of teratology, Serres explained the presence of malformations as cases of arrested development or overdevelopment. He had disagreements with Charles Darwin regarding the latter's evolutionary theories. Serres believed that humans were creatures set apart and a supreme goal of all creation.

Associated eponyms:
Serres' angle: Also known as the metafacial angle, an angle between the base of the skull and the pterygoid process
Serres' glands: Also called Epstein's pearls, epithelial cell rests found in the subepithelial connective tissue in the palate of the newborn.