Die Potenzen der Ascaris-Blastemeren bei abgeänderter Furchung. Zugleich ein Beitrag zur Frage qualitativ-ungleicher Chromosomen-Teilung

Boveri, Theodor (1862-1915). Die Potenzen der Ascaris-Blastemeren bei abgeänderter Furchung. Zugleich ein Beitrag zur Frage qualitativ-ungleicher Chromosomen-Teilung. Offprint from Festschrift zum sechzigsten Geburtstag Richard Hertwigs (Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1910), vol. 3. [4], 133-214pp. 6 chromolithographed double-page plates, text illustrations. 284 x 203 mm. (uncut and unopened). Original printed wrappers, small tear in front wrapper. Fine copy.

First Edition, offprint issue. Boveri's demonstrations of chromosome individuality (see Garrison-Morton 231.1) and his proof that different chromosomes perform different functions in development (see Garrison-Morton 241.1) "laid the basis for the cytological explanation of Mendel's law of heredity" (E. B. Wilson, quoted in the Dictionary of Scientific Biography). His cytological studies of the eggs of the roundworm Ascaris megalocephala, begun in the late 1880s, "later (1904, 1909, 1910) led to an appreciation of the importance of the cytoplasm in nuclear control . . . At a time when much emphasis was placed on the overwhelming importance of the nucleus in development, Boveri wrote almost prophetically on the significance of reciprocal interaction between nucleus and cytoplasm" (Dictionary of Scientific Biography). Boveri's 1910 paper deals with the powers of the Ascaris blastema in a modified segmentation, and discusses the question of unequal division of chromosomes.