A pioneer work on the formation and division of cells. In this third edition Strasburger established one of the principles of modern cytology, i.e., that independent cell formation does not occur but that fresh nuclei invariably arise through the division of older ones. The first edition of this book appeared in 1875.

Like Roux, Strasburger hypothesized that the cell nucleus contained the material basis of heredity, and developed the idea with evidence from microscopical observations.