Das Keimplasma.: Eine Theorie der Vererbung. Mit 24 Abbildungen im Text.

Jena: Gustav Fischer,, 1892. First edition of this exposition of the germ plasm theory, a precursor to modern genetics and a crucial tenet of the Weismann barrier. Weismann did "more than any other man to focus attention on the mechanism of inheritance" (The Royal Society, upon the presentation of the Darwin Medal to the author, quoted in DSB, p. 238). The root of Weismann's theory and his rejection of the inheritance of acquired traits is found in his 1883 lecture "Über die Vererbung". This was followed by Die Continuität des Keimplasma's als Grundlage einer Theorie der Vererbung (1885) which located the germ plasm within the nucleus. Das Keimplasma is Weismann's fullest exposition of the germ plasm; it reports on his experiments, surveys the work of his contemporaries, and proposes a framework within which to further investigate heredity. "Weismann was not the first to conceive of the continuity of the substance of heredity, nor to suggest that this continuity was a function of the germ plasm, but he was the first to develop this suggestion into a coherent explanation of inheritance to bring it into agreement with new cytological discoveries" (Norman 2195). Octavo. Original orange printed wrappers, edges uncut, the majority of gatherings unopened. Numerous illustrations within text. Extremities creased, covers bright, small chips and closed tears to spine ends, contents clean: a near-fine copy. Garrison-Morton 236.