Hertwig, Oscar

Hertwig, Oscar ôsˈkär hĕrtˈvĭkh [key], 1849–1922, German embryologist. He studied medicine with Haeckel and Gegenbaur. In 1875 he established the fact that fertilization consists of the union of the nuclei of a male and a female sex cell. He studied the germ-layer theory (introducing the term coelom) and malformations of vertebrate embryos.

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