In 1869, Johann Friedrich Miescher discovered a new substance in the nucleus of living cells. The substance, which he called nuclein, is now known as DNA, yet both Miescher’s name and his theoretical ideas about nuclein are all but forgotten. This paper traces the trajectory of Miescher’s reception in the historiography of genetics. To his critics, Miescher was a “contaminator,” whose preparations were impure. Modern historians portrayed him as a “confuser,” whose misunderstandings delayed the development of molecular biology. Each of these portrayals reflects the disciplinary context in which Miescher’s work was evaluated. Using archival sources to unearth Miescher’s unpublished speculations—including an analogy between the hereditary material and language, and a speculation that a series of asymmetric carbon atoms could account for hereditary variation—this paper clarifies the ways in which the past was judged through the lens of contemporary concerns. It also shows how organization, structure, function, and information were already being considered when nuclein was first discovered nearly 150 years ago.

中文翻译：

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Friedrich Miescher 在遗传学史学中的发现：从污染到混淆，从核蛋白到 DNA

1869 年，Johann Friedrich Miescher 在活细胞的细胞核中发现了一种新物质。这种被他称为核蛋白的物质现在被称为 DNA，但米舍尔的名字和他关于核蛋白的理论思想几乎都被遗忘了。本文追溯了米舍尔在遗传学史学中的接受轨迹。对他的批评者来说，米舍尔是一个“污染者”，他的准备工作是不纯的。现代历史学家将他描绘成一个“迷惑者”，他的误解延迟了分子生物学的发展。这些描述中的每一个都反映了对 Miescher 作品进行评估的学科背景。利用档案资料挖掘米舍尔未发表的推测——包括遗传材料和语言之间的类比，以及一系列不对称碳原子可以解释遗传变异的推测——本文阐明了通过当代关注的视角来判断过去的方式。它还显示了近 150 年前首次发现核蛋白时，组织、结构、功能和信息是如何被考虑的。