An Early Reference to Genetic Coding

Abstract

SCHRÖDINGER'S little book What is Life ?¹ is usually thought to contain the first reference to genetic coding². It is therefore surprising to find that Johann Friedrich or “Fritz” Miescher (1844–1895), the discoverer of nucleoprotein and nucleic acid, expressed his belief in the existence of a chemical code within the hereditary material 52 yr before the publication of Schrödinger's discussion on the “hereditary code-script”. Miescher's remarks are to be found in two letters which he wrote to his uncle, Professor Wilhelm His, the first in December 1892 and the second in October 1893. They are included in the letters which Miescher's friends collected together and published in 1897 (ref. 3). In the twenty-eight-page biography which Wilhelm His contributed to this volume they are mentioned very briefly in a footnote. We have also found one reference to Miescher's comments on the isomerism of the hereditary material by Jack Schultz in 1941 (ref. 4). The following is an extract from our translation of the first letter.