August Weismann (
1834 -
1914) was a
German biologist. He advocated the
germ plasm theory[?], stating that a multicellular organism consists of
germ cells[?] that pass on hereditary information, and
somatic cells that perform body functions. The germ cells are not affected by anything the body learns or any ability it acquires during its life, and cannot pass this information on to the next generation. This eventually led to the rediscovery of
Gregor Mendel's work.
