Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 1994

AUGUST WEISMANN (1834-1914) Das Keimplasma. G. Fischer 1892 xviii, 628 pp., illus. 27 cm.

Weismann, educated at Göttingen and Giessen, practiced medicine until 1863, when he turned to biological research and zoology. Although well known for his zoological investigations, it is this classic work on heredity for which he is best known. In it he states his germ-plasm theory, the concept that although the cells of a living organism ultimately die, some portion of the protoplasm of the germ cells passes on through ovum and sperm from generation to generation. To this substance, which he named germ plasm, he assigned the task of carrying forward the elements of heredity. Weismann rejected the Lamarckian theory of the inheritance of acquired characteristics, and the influence of this landmark work led to the chromosome theory as it matured in the 1920s and 1930s.

Cited references: Garrison-Morton 236; Osler 1622 (English tr., 1893)

Gift of John Martin, M.D.