AMICI, JEAN-BAPTISTE. - A FUNDAMENTAL PAPER ON PLANT PHYSIOLOGY AND MICROSCOPY.

Observations sur la Circulation du suc dans le Chara. (Traduit par M. Fresnel jeune des Memoires della Societá italiana delle scienze residente a Modena. T. XVIII).

(Paris, Crochard, 1820).. No wrappers. Extracted from: Annales de Chimie et de Physique, Par MM. Gay-Lussac et Arago.", Series 2, Tome 13. Pp. 384-409 a. 1 folded engraved plate. The plate with some brownspots.

First French edition of this groundbreaking paper in microscopy and biology. The paper was first published in Italian as "De microscopi cattadiottrici memoria", Modena 1818, and here he explains how, by the improved acromatic microscope, he was able to observe the circulation of protoplasm in Chara cells. He thereby became immediately famous not only as an optician but also as a microscopic biologist.

After improving his microscope "Amici immediately applied his instrument to the study of the circulation of sap in the Chara. The main matters that he clarified were "the dependence of this circulation on the series of chlorophyll grains, that the sap flows faster in the cell wall than in the internal cell space, that there is no dividing wall between the rising current and the descending current of sap and the possibility of dividing the sap current into two separate circuits by constricting the cell" (H. von Mohl).

Garrison & Morton: 266.

Order-nr.: 45519