# omnia nucleus e nucleo



## pordiosero

¡Hi!

Please, what is the exact translation of "_*omnia nucleus e nucleo*"_?

And what does it mean?

Thanks.


----------



## Snodv

A _nucleus_ is the kernel of a nut.  _Nucleus e nucleo_ would mean "Kernel out of [or from] a kernel."  _Omnia_ means "all things," either as a subject or an object, or "all" as an adjective modifying a neuter plural subject or object.  It has no apparent grammatical relation to the other words, and so as it stands this seems to be nonsense.  Perhaps _omnia_ is a typographical error.


----------



## Snodv

Or maybe there is a copula such as _sunt _which has gone unexpressed.  In which case, this is still a little mysterious:  "All things are a kernel from a kernel."  Huh?


----------



## Cagey

Where did you see this, pordiosero? 
What was being discussed?  

The intended meaning is not clear. Some information about about the context may enable people to make useful suggestions.


----------



## pordiosero

Cagey said:


> Some information about about the context may enable people to make useful suggestions.


“The dictum ‘*omnia nucleus e nucleo*’ is perfectly valid as long as it is restricted to the cells of _metazoa_ and _metaphyta_, to the material, that is to say, to which the professed cytologist usually confines his observations. But in the _protista_ it is now well established that nuclei can arise _de novo_, not from pre-existing nuclei, but from the extra-nuclear chromatin.

My intuitive translation: "Every nucleus comes from the interior of another nucleus."

@Snodv Do you agree?


----------



## bearded

pordiosero said:


> "Every nucleus


That would be _omni*s *nucleus.  _That _omni_*a *(= everything, all things) represents the problem. Snodv's suggestion in #3 is plausible..


----------



## pordiosero

bearded said:


> That would be _omni*s *nucleus_


Then "*Omnis nucleus e nucleo*" can be translated as "*Every nucleus comes from the interior of another nucleus*."?


----------



## bearded

Well, literally the Latin sentence only means (with 'omni*s*) ''every kernel (comes) from another kernel''.  You may of course - considering modern scientific concepts - understand 'kernel' as nucleus.  The part ''the interior of..'' is not there.


----------



## pordiosero

From Wikipedia: On the basis of his discoveries, Walther 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*).

But the Spanish Wikipedia say (translated): he coined the phrase *omnis nucleus ex nucleus*, after Virchow's _*omnis cellula ex cellula*_._ _

Probably_ *omnis nucleus e nucleo *_is the original phrase coined.


----------



## Snodv

I totally buy _omnis nucleus e nucleo._  In the model from Virchow, we cannot tell from the spelling that one _cellula_ is nominative and the other ablative, as in the first (-a) declension these case endings are spelled the same except for a macron which is absent here.  That may be the fact behind the error quoted from the Spanish Wikipedia.  But while we cannot tell from the appearance of the words, we know it because the preposition _e/ex_ can only be used with ablative. In the second declension, to which _nucleus_ belongs, they are different, _-us _being the masculine nominative and _-o_ the ablative.


----------

