Biographical Notice 3 1 1 



At the expense of the cloister he was sent in 1851 to 

 the University of Vienna, where he remained till 1853, 

 studying mathematics, physics, and natural sciences*. 

 Returning to Briinn he became a teacher, especially of 

 physics, in the Realschule. He appears to have taken 

 great pleasure in teaching and to have been extraordinarily 

 successful in interesting his pupils in their work. He 

 continued this occupation till 1868, when he was elected 

 Abbot, or more strictly, Pralat of the Konigskloster. 



The experiments which have made his name famous 

 throughout the world were carried on in the large garden 

 of the cloister. From the time of his novitiate he began 

 experimental work, introducing various plants into the 

 garden and watching their behaviour under treatment. He 

 was fond of showing these cultures to his friends. Dr von 

 Niessl relates how on one occasion he was taken to see 

 Fie aria calthaefolia and Ficaria ranunculoides (two forms 

 now regarded as varieties of Ranunculus Ficaria} which 

 had for some years been cultivated side by side without 

 manifesting any noticeable change. Mendel jokingly said: 

 "This much I do see, that nature cannot get on further 

 with species-making in this way. There must be something 

 more behind." 



With the views of Darwin which at that time were 

 coming into prominence Mendel did not find himself in full 

 agreement, and he embarked on his experiments with peas, 

 which as we know he continued for eight years. The 

 results were communicated to the Briinn Society in 1865 

 and published in 1866, but they passed unheeded. The 

 subsequent paper on Hieracium appeared in 1 869, meeting 

 a similar fate. 



During his period of scientific work Mendel, as we now 

 know, was engaged on a great variety of cognate researches. 

 In his letters to Nageli (197) there are allusions to some of 

 these subjects, but unhappily few statements of results. 

 His largest undertaking besides the work on Piswn was an 

 investigation of the heredity of bees. He had 50 hives 



* To this period belong two notes which he published in the Verh. zool. 

 hot. Verein, Wien, on Scopolia margaritalis (1853, in. p. 116) and Bruchus 

 pisi (ibid. 1854, iv. p. 27). In these papers he speaks of himself as a pupil 

 of Kollar. 



