Commemoration of the publication of Gregor Mendel's pioneer experiments in genetics / Papers read at the Annual General Meeting, April 23, 1965.

  • American Philosophical Society
Date:
1965
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Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Commemoration of the publication of Gregor Mendel's pioneer experiments in genetics / Papers read at the Annual General Meeting, April 23, 1965. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    VOL. 109, NO. 4, 1965] MENDEL, HIS WORK AND PLACE IN HISTORY 191 and proved the interrelation between character pairs in inheritance, when more than one pair is involved, which places his work distinctly above everything that had gone before. Nevertheless the genial abbot's work was not entirely heavenborn, but had a back¬ ground of one hundred years of substantial progress that made it possible for his genius to develop to its full measure. Contributing to the view of Mendel as the unique source of two of the main ideas of modern genetics is the aura of isolation which has clung to him. Even some biologists of today tend to think of him as though he had been a visitor from outer space whose brief transit through European sci¬ ence was unobserved at the time. Indeed his published works cover only a short period, al¬ though his scientific activity extended over some twenty years. And he does seem rather an out¬ sider in European botany. One gets this impres¬ sion from the somewhat patronizing tone of Carl von Nägeli, the authority on hybridization and a leader of botanical research to whom Mendel wrote ten letters. These, published by Correns in 1905,® long after Mendel's death in 1882, were composed as scientific reports, explaining, de¬ fending, and amplifying the results in his 1866 paper. They reveal a modest, humble person who, while firmly upholding the correctness of the interpretation he had reached, nevertheless rec¬ ognized that he had not and probably could not convince the one person most competent to under¬ stand his work. To contemporary botanists he must have seemed like an amateur, a priest in a provincial monastery, interested in hybridizing and improving garden plants and fruit trees, in beekeeping, meteorological observations and simi¬ lar occupations. Even after his work had come to recognition he was often referred to as the Abbot of Brünn, as though his scientific work had been a biproduct of a life devoted to other interests. But for fifteen years at least it was the dominant interest. The older view of Mendel in provincial and ecclesiastical isolation has had to be modified by what we know now about his travels, not only in Austria and Germany, but to Paris and London and several times to Italy and by his participation in the scientific life of Brünn, the capital of Moravia. He was a founding member of the Natural Science Society, was an active member of the Moravian Agricultural Society, the mete- T. H. Morgan, The Rise of Genetics, Science 76 (1932) : pp. 261-267 ; 285-288. ® Carl Correns, Gregor Mendels Briefe an Carl Nägeli 1866-1873, Abh. D. Math. Phys. Klasse d. Königl. Sachs. Ges. d. Wiss. 29 (1905) : pp. 189-265. orological society and the apicultura! society, and sat in the directorate of a deaf mute asylum and of a mortgage bank. And it should not be forgotten that in 1868 at the age of forty-five he was elected the abbot of his monastery and as such became administrator of its properties and its represent¬ ative vis-à-vis city, province, and nation. Much of this happened later in his life. At the time of his greatest research activity, 1855-1866, he was not in a mainstream of science or of affairs. Certainly he seems then to have been in no position to have become the founder of a new branch of science, and is in any case an unlikely figure to occupy such a niche. What he wrote made it quite clear that he never saw himself in such a light and even though he is said to have declared Mein Zeit wird schon kommen, it is likely that what he meant was that his law formu¬ lated for Pisum would be recognized as well founded. Much of the impression of Mendel's remote¬ ness may stem simply from our ignorance of his life and this in turn may be due in part to his own reticence. It is not that Mendel is a shadowy figure. What we do know suggests a solid, sturdy figure of flesh and blood, precise, system¬ atic, self-contained and reserved, but not by any means withdrawn, exhibiting the practical good sense of the peasant, as befitted his ancestry and early life. The records bearing on his personal life, diaries, autobiographical writings (except a brief Lebenslauf written in his twenty-eighth year), even copies of letters to and from him are few and brief. Hugo litis, a successor to Mendel as teacher in Brünn, who published the best biography of Mendel in 1924 ® was able to interview a few of Mendel's associates and former pupils, and there are some other tangential ac¬ counts, but on the whole it is a very sparse, bare record. Oswald Richter, also a Brünn teacher, in papers published between 1925 and 1943,^°'^^'^^ ^ Hugo litis, Gregor Mendel: Leben, Werk und Wirk¬ ung (Berlin, 1924). English Transi, by Eden and Cedar Paul: Life of Mendel (New York, 1932). O. Richter, Biographisches über Pater Gregor Mendel aus Brünns Archiven, pp. 261-280, in Ruzicka V. editor: Memorial volume in honor of the lOOth birthday of J. G. Mendel (Fr. Borovy, Prague, 1925). O. Richter, 75 Jahre seit Mendels Grosztat und Mendels Stellungnahme zu Darwins Werken auf Grund seiner Entdeckungen. Verh. naturforsch. Verein. Brünn 72 (1940) : pp. 110-173. Oswald Richter, Johann Gregor Mendel wie er wirklich war. Neue Beitrage zur Biographie des be¬ rühmten Biologen aus Brünns Archiven. Herausgegeben mit Unterstützung des mährischen Landesbehörde, der Landeshauptstadt Brünn und der Deutschen Akademie