Author: Weismann, A.
Title: Die Continuität des Keimplasma's als Grundlage einer Theorie der Vererbung.
Description: Jena, Gustav Fischer, 1885. 8vo (22.9 x 14.8 cm). 122 pp., three text figures. Later green blind half cloth over marbled boards. = Perhaps the most important work by the German evolutionary biologist Friedrich Leopold August Weismann (1834-1914). Ernst Mayr judged him to be the most important evolutionary thinker between Darwin and the evolutionary synthesis around 1930-40, and one of the great biologists of all time, second only to Charles Darwin. "It was recognized that, altho the cells of a living organism ultimately die, yet some portion of the protoplasm of the germ cells passes on thru ovum and sperm from generation to generation. To this substance Weismann gave the name germ plasm and assigned to it the task of carrying forward the elements of heridity" (Dibner). “Weismann became the Director of the Zoological Institute and the first Professor of Zoology at Freiburg. His main contribution was the germ plasm theory, according to which (in a multicellular organism) inheritance only takes place by means of the germ cells-the gametes such as egg cells and sperm cells. Other cells of the body-somatic cells-do not function as agents of heredity. The effect is one-way: germ cells produce somatic cells and are not affected by anything the somatic cells learn or therefore any ability the body acquires during its life. Genetic information cannot pass from soma to germ plasm and on to the next generation. This is referred to as the Weismann barrier. This idea, if true, rules out the inheritance of acquired characteristics as proposed by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck ... Weismann's ideas preceded the rediscovery of Gregor Mendel's work, and though Weismann was cagey about accepting Mendelism, younger workers soon made the connection” (Wikipedia). Cancelled stamp on front pastedown, title page and last text leaf. Some scattered light foxing, otherwise a good complete copy. Dibner, 200; Norman, 2195.

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