230 Biographical Notice 



under observation. He collected queens of all attainable 

 races, European, Egyptian, and American, and effected 

 numerous crosses between these races, though it is known 

 that he had many failures. Attempts were made to induce 

 the queens to mate in his room, which he netted in with 

 gauze for the purpose, but it was too small or too dark, and 

 these efforts were unsuccessful. We would give much to 

 know what results he obtained. In view of their genetic 

 peculiarities a knowledge of heredity in bees would mani- 

 festly be of great value. The notes which he is known to 

 have made on these experiments cannot be found, and it is 

 supposed by some that in the depression which he suffered 

 before his death they were destroyed. 



In 1905 I had the pleasure of visiting the Konigs- 

 kloster, hoping that some trace of the missing books might 

 be discovered. I was most courteously received by the 

 present Pralat and the brethren of the cloister. My thanks 

 are due in particular to Dr Janetschek for the assistance he 

 gave me. It is to him that I owe the photographs of 

 Mendel given in this volume. I saw the hives which had 

 been used standing in their places, but the note books are 

 gone^. A rich harvest of discovery awaits those who may 

 successfully repeat the work. 



With his appointment as Pralat his researches may be 

 said to have ended. To Nageli he wrote that he hoped 

 that after an interval his elevation might enable him to find 

 better opportunities for study, but it was not to be. In 

 1872 the Government passed a law imposing special taxes 

 on the property of religious houses. This enactment 

 Mendel conceived to be unjust and he decided to resist, 

 claiming that all citizens should be equal in law, and that 

 if these taxes were imposed on one class of institution they 

 should be imposed on all. He thus took up a position which 

 in England we should call that of a '' Passive Resister." At 

 first several monasteries stood out with the Konigskloster, 

 but gradually they conformed, Mendel alone remaining firm. 

 The quarrel involved him in protracted trouble and litiga- 

 tion. High emissaries are said to have visited him pro- 



* On chance of finding something I obtained a file of the local bee- 

 journal of Briinn, but beyond the fact that Mendel was a Vice-President of 

 the Verein, whose organ it is, I could discover in it nothing relating to him. 



