PAPERS READ TO THE MENDEL SOCIETY. 



A SKETCH OE MENDEL'S LIEE AND 

 WORK. 



An Address delivered to the Mendel Society on June 

 6th, 1910. 



By D. J. SCOURFIELD. 



1. Introduction. 



Almost exactly ten years ago the well-known experi- 

 mental botanists de Vries, Correns and Tschermak 

 independently made a most important discovery. 

 It was not the discovery of a new scientific fact, 

 however, but the unearthing of a little paper by one 

 Gregor Mendel, which had been published as far 

 back as the year 1866. We can imagine their 

 astonishment as they read that old paper to find 

 that it actually contained the clue, set out with 

 almost mathematical precision, to many of the 

 puzzles they themselves had been struggling with 

 in the course of their work. They lost no time in 

 making known their discovery, and thus was inaugu- 

 rated what, from the point of view of the study of 

 heredity, may justly be termed the Mendelian era. 

 At the present day, as we all know by experience, 

 the name of Mendel and such words and phrases as 

 "Mendelism," "Mendel's Law," "Mendelian principles," 

 " Mendelian ratios," "Mendelian facts," are continually 



