VIII 



Mendelism 



(From the " Transactions of the HigJdaiid and Agricidtural 



Society of Scotland,^'' 1913) 



Mendelism is the name given to the method and science of 

 breeding which has come into existence as the result of the 

 work of one Gregor Mendel. The history of Mendel's work 

 and of its reception is a very curious one. About the middle 

 of last century he was Abbot of a monastery in Briinn in 

 Austria ; and in his cloister garden he carried out some hybrid- 

 isation experiments with the culinary pea, crossing different 

 varieties with one another and keeping detailed records of the 

 results. He published his results in the journal of a local 

 scientific society in 1865. But nobody paid any attention to 

 his paper, although the facts which he described were of the 

 greatest interest, and the explanation of these facts which he 

 put forward was more interesting still. Mendel's paper lay 

 hidden and forgotten in the volumes of the Scientific Society 

 of Briinn from 1865 until 1900, sixteen years after his death, 

 when it was discovered independently by three botanists — 

 one in Germany, one in Austria, and one in Holland. As 

 soon as the attention of the scientific world was drawn to 

 Mendel's paper by these three botanists, the great import- 

 ance of the facts which Mendel had discovered, and of the 

 theories which he put forward to explain them, was at once 

 seen. And many investigators set to work to find out whether 

 the rules which Mendel said applied to his peas apphed to 

 other plants and to animals as well. It is natural that these 

 investigators should choose as material for their breeding 



261 



