flemming investigated the process of cell division and the distribution of chromosomes to the daughter nuclei, a process he called mitosis from the greek word for thread. however, he did not see the splitting into identical halves, the daughter chromatids. he studied mitosis, both in life and in stained preparations, using as the source of biological material the fins and gills of salamanders. these results were published first in 1878 and in 1882 in the seminal book "zellsubstanz, kern und zelltheilung" (1882; cell substance, nucleus and cell division). on the basis of his discoveries, flemming surmised for the first time that all cell nuclei came from another predecessor nucleus (he coined the phrase "omnis nucleus e nucleo", after virchow's "omnis cellula e cellula").