FLEMMING, Walther 1843-1905). Zellsubstanz, Kem und Zelltheilung.

FLEMMING, Walther (1843-1905).  Zellsubstanz, Kern und Zelltheilung. Leipzig: Verlag von F. C. W. Vogel, 1882. Large 8vo (235 x 160mm). 8 tinted lithographed plates, one folding, some double-page, illustrations (title stained, occasional light spotting). Contemporary black half roan and marbled boards (extremities rubbed, remnants of old manuscript label on spine). Provenance: Bibliotheca Collegii Exaeten (old stamp on title); from the Collection of Peter and Margarethe Braune. FIRST EDITION of this seminal work on cytogenetics which first established, and named, the process of ‘mitosis’. In the present work, the author also coins the terms ‘prophase’, ‘metaphase’ and ‘anaphase’ and establishes that all cell nuclei come from another predecessor nucleus. The author was the first to observe and describe systematically the behaviour of chromosomes in the cell nucleus during normal cell division. The book also includes the first illustration of human chromosomes, made possible by the use of aniline dyes.