Charles Manning Child, (born Feb. 2, 1869, Ypsilanti, Mich., U.S.—died Dec. 19, 1954, Palo Alto, Calif.), American zoologist who developed the axial gradient theory of regeneration and development, a physiological explanation of the ordered re-creation of animal parts following an injury.
While at the University of Chicago, where he spent his academic life (1895–1934), Child experimented extensively with invertebrates such as planarian flatworms and freshwater hydras, which show a remarkable ability to regenerate themselves from small fragments. He observed that characteristic parts, such as a head or a tail, usually grew from that portion of the fragment where the same part had previously been joined, a phenomenon known as polarity. On the basis of his experiments, Child advanced a theory of antero-posterior dominance, stating that physiological activity in a multicellular organism increases along its axis from bottom to top (or tail to head), and that this gradient of activity in a tissue fragment determines the position of structures growing from it. He felt that the gradient was caused by the action of a chemical factor on cell functions. Although Child was not able to demonstrate how gradients were formed in the first place, his theory directed many investigators to seek to understand developmental processes in physico-chemical terms. Child was particularly influential in combining physiological and developmental theories of cell recognition and pattern formation.
Among his publications are Individuality in Organisms (1915) and Patterns and Problems of Development (1941).