An Interactive Annotated World Bibliography of Printed and Digital Works in the History of Medicine and the Life Sciences from Circa 2000 BCE to 2022 by Fielding H. Garrison (1870-1935), Leslie T. Morton (1907-2004), and Jeremy M. Norman (1945- ) Traditionally Known as “Garrison-Morton”

15961 entries, 13944 authors and 1935 subjects. Updated: March 22, 2024

MORGAN, Thomas Hunt

6 entries
  • 514

The development of the frog's egg; an introduction to experimental embryology.

New York: Macmillan, 1897.

First work in English on experimental embryology.



Subjects: EMBRYOLOGY
  • 245.2

Sex-limited inheritance in Drosophila.

Science, 32, 120-22., 1910.

Morgan (Nobel Prize 1933) demonstrated sex-limited inheritance.



Subjects: GENETICS / HEREDITY
  • 245.3

Random segregation versus coupling in Mendelian inheritance.

Science, 34, 384, 1911.

Morgan proposed that what he called Mendelian factors (genes) are arranged in a linear series on chromosomes and that the degree of linkage between two genes on the same chromosome depends upon the distance between them. This fundamental idea enabled his student Sturtevant to map genes on chromosomes. (See No. 245.2).



Subjects: GENETICS / HEREDITY
  • 246

The mechanism of Mendelian heredity.

New York: H. Holt, 1915.

Summarizes the major early findings of Morgan’s Drosophila research group, which based its research on the rapidly reproducing small vinegar fly, Drosophila melanogaster, often called the fruit fly. This epoch-making book presented evidence that genes were arranged linearly on chromosomes, and that the Mendelian laws could be shown to be based on observable events occurring in cells. The group also showed that heredity could be studied rigorously and quantitatively. Morgan was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1933.

Order of authorship in the original publication: Morgan, Sturtevant, Muller, Bridges.
Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.



Subjects: GENETICS / HEREDITY
  • 13915

The physical basis of heredity.

Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1919.

In this book Morgan first used the word gene. Previously he had used the term "Mendelian unit" or "factor." On the basis of genetic analysis Morgan presented a number of characteristics of genes:

1. A gene could have more than one effect. For instance, insects that had white-eye gene not only had white eyes, but al grew slower and had a lower viability.
2. The effects of the gene could be modified by external conditions, but these modiciations were not transmitted to future generations. The gene itself was stable; only the character that the gene controlled varied.
3. Characters that were indistinguishable phenotypically could be the product of different genes.
4. At the same time, each character was the product of many genes. For instance, 50 different genes were known to affect eye color; 15 affected body color, and 10 affected length of wing.
5. Heredity was therefore not some property of the 'organism as a whole,' but of the genes.
6. Genes of the pair did not jump out of one chromosome into another, but changed when the chromosome thread broke as a piece in front of or else behind them. Thus, crossing-over affected linked genes and groups, and was a product of the behavior of the chromosome as an entity.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.



Subjects: GENETICS / HEREDITY
  • 251

The theory of the gene.

New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1926.


Subjects: GENETICS / HEREDITY