In 1894 Morgan was granted a year's absence to conduct research in the laboratories of "Stazione Zoologica" in Naples, where Wilson had worked two years earlier. There he worked with German biologist Hans Driesch, whose research in the experimental study of development piqued Morgan's interest. Among other projects that year, Morgan completed an experimental study of ctenophore embryology. In Naples and through Loeb, he became familiar with the "Entwicklungsmechanik" (roughly, "developmental mechanics") school of experimental biology. It was a reaction to the vitalistic "Naturphilosophie", which was extremely influential in 19th-century morphology. Morgan changed his work from traditional, largely descriptive morphology to an experimental embryology that sought physical and chemical explanations for organismal development.