igo BREEDING 



account for his results on the assumption of its cor- 

 rectness. He knew it so well that he did not know 

 he knew it. But those who read Mendel's papers 

 were still labouring to find out how the characters of 

 an organism got into the germ-cells which it pro- 

 duced. The result was that no point was seen in 

 Mendel's theory, and it quickly lapsed into the oblivion 

 from which it was not rescued till 1900. 



It is not as if Mendel were out of touch with the 

 recognised representatives of biological orthodoxy. 

 He was in correspondence with Carl Nageli, to whose 

 criticisms Charles Darwin paid more attention than 

 to those of any other of his critics. This correspondence 

 has been published by Prof. Correns. It includes a 

 patient attempt by Mendel to make clear to Nageli 

 those points which the latter had not understood in 

 Mendel's paper. Not only did he do this ; he also 

 sent packets of peas resulting from his experiments 

 to Nageli, in the assurance that if he (Nageli) grew 

 them he could not fail to perceive the significance 

 of the results which he (Mendel) had obtained. But 

 so deeply was Nageli imbued with his view of heredity 

 that Mendel's explanations, and his seeds as well, were 

 as water on a duck's back. " These " says Mr. 

 Bateson,* referring to Mendel's letters and his illus- 

 trative specimens, " must have utterly failed to arouse 

 his (Nageli's) interest, for when in 1884, the year 

 of Mendel's death, he published his great treatise on 

 heredity, no reference was made to Mendel or his 

 work. That this neglect was due to want of com- 



* " Mendel's Principles of Heredity," p. 55. 



