16 THE MENDEL JOURNAL 



forcing themselves upon our notice, sometimes in the 

 most unlikely places. And yet, in spite of all that 

 has been said and done around the name of Mendel 

 during the past decade, it is doubtful whether very 

 many even of those who take a real interest in 

 biological matters have a clear idea of who Mendel 

 was and what he did. It is in the hope that 

 another brief account of his life and work may be 

 useful to some who have not hitherto had an oppor- 

 tunity of going into the subject that this paper has 

 been written.* 



2. A Short Account of Mendel's Life. 



Mendel was born at the village of Heinzendorf, 

 near Odrau, in Austrian Silesia, on the 22nd July, 

 1822. His parents and grandparents were all natives 

 of the same place, and it is known that the Mendel 

 family had been established there from at least the 

 seventeenth century. Young Gregor, or rather 

 Johann, as he was then called, Gregor being only 

 an adopted and not his baptismal name, at first 

 attended the local school at Heinzendorf, but at 

 eleven years of age he was sent to school at Leipnik, 

 and subsequently to the gymnasia at Troppau and 

 Olmiitz. It is a sure sign of the exceptional ability 

 shown by Mendel in his early student days that he 

 should have been enabled by his parents to continue 

 his studies so long, for his family was by no means 



* Those who wish for further information about Mendel and his 

 work, together with the principal results of recent research on 

 Mendelian lines, should consult Bateson's " Mendel's Principles of 

 Heredity " {Cambridge University Press, 19U9), a work to which the author 

 of the present sketch desires to express his great indebtedness. 



