Wilhelm von Waldeyer-Hartz called them chromosomes,
Greek for “colored bodies,”
because they were visible as small threads
when Walther Flemming
stained them blue using an aniline dye.
Flemming named stuff in the cell that could be stained blue
chromatin.
So Flemming gets the credit for discovering
chromosomes,
and he was able to watch them in the process
of cell division,
which he called mitosis, Greek for “warp thread.”
*
Others had observed mitosis earlier
than Flemming,
but they didn’t have the means of making the parts visible
using dyes.
*
Edouard Van Beneden observed chromosomes
during the production of gametes
by 1868.
Wacław Myzel described mitosis
in cornea cells of frog, rabbit, and cat
in 1875.
Otto Bütschli observed mitosis
and called chromosomes rodlets
by 1876.
Eduard Strasburger observed cell formation
and cell division in gymnosperms
by 1876.
Omnis nucleus e nucleo
Eduard Strasburger famously wrote,
“New cell nuclei can arise only
from the division of other nuclei.”
Flemming coined the phrase
omnis nucleus e nucleo,
“all nuclei come from nuclei,”
after Rudolf Virchow’s phrase
omniis cellula e cellula.
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Do not confuse mitosis with meiosis, miosis, myositis, myosotis,
amitosis, acidosis, or halitosis.
Meiosis is a form of mitosis that results in germ cells
(with half the chromosomes of the parent).
Flemming was not aware of the laws of inheritance;
working out the relation between chromosomes, mitosis, and genetics
took another twenty years.
Do not confuse mitosis with meiosis, miosis, myositis, myosotis, amitosis, acidosis, or halitosis. Meiosis is a form of mitosis that results in germ cells (with half the chromosomes of the parent). Flemming was not aware of the laws of inheritance; working out the relation between chromosomes, mitosis, and genetics took another twenty years.
See also in The book of science:
Readings on wikipedia:
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