Wilson

Wilson, Edmund (Edmund Wilson, b. 1858; more correctly Wilson), prof. of Columbia University, outstanding contemporary American cytologist and embryologist, author of the book "The cell in development and heredity", 3rd ed., N.Y., 1925 ("The cell in development and heredity"), an extensive treatise on cytology, which advantageously distinguishes itself from other treatises by its fine critical processing of a colossal amount of scientific material (there is an old Russian translation of the 1st edition, St. Petersburg, 1896). Of Wilson's scientific works, particularly important are the embryology of the earthworm, experiments on developing eggs, which led Wilson to the discovery of the so-called "mosaic" development, cytological works on fertilization, artificial parthenogenesis, and the chromosomal theory of sex determination, currently accepted by the vast majority of researchers ("The embryology of the earthworm", Journal of morphology, 1889, 1892, 1898; "Amphioxus and the mosaic theory of development", ibid., 1893; "Studies on chromosomes", Journal of experimental zoology, 1905-12).