The foundation of bacteria classification

COHN, Ferdinand.

Untersuchungen ueber Bacterien.

Breslau: J.U. Kern, 1872.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine. Item #002060

Untersuchungen ueber Bacterien. In: Beiträge zur Biologie der Pflanzen, Part I, 1872, 2. Heft, pp. [127]-224, 1 tinted lithograph plate, and part II, 1875, 3. Heft, pp. [141]-207, 2 plates (one tinted and one colored lithograph). Breslau: J.U. Kern, 1870-75. Three parts in two volumes. 8vo (224x141 mm). Whole volumes: [6], 131, [1]; [4], 224; [8], 224 pp., 15 plates (some chromolithographed). Contemporary half morocco, neatly rebacked retaining original endpapers. Light toning due to paper stock, otherwise clean and unspotted. Provenance: R.G.L. Dieffenbach M.D. (bookplates to pastedowns and title-page of first part); Smith College Bacteriology Library (bookplates to front pastedowns), small discrete withdrawal stamps. Fine copy. ----

Norman 494; Garrison-Morton 2483. FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, very rare. "Cohn's three papers, published in the journal that he founded and edited, are among the seminal works of bacteriology. The first paper (part I), originally published in 1872, effectively initiated the science: it contained Cohn's new system of bacteria classification, in which he distinguished four groups of bacteria based on their constancy of external form and linked this constancy to certain physiological phenomena. The second paper (part II) announced Cohn's discovery of thermoresistant spores produced by certain bacteria, which could survive even prolonged intense heat in a sealed container; this discovery explained what had long been a puzzling anomaly, and dealt a convincing blow to the doctrine of spontaneous generation." (Norman 494). A third part was published in 1876.

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