CHAPTER III 

 MENDEL'S LAW 



Mendel's law is the basis of all work in genetics, and 

 should be understood from its original statement to its 

 somewhat complex development. In 1865, Gregor 

 Mendel (3) published in the proceedings of a local 

 scientific society the result of eight years of breeding 

 experiments. The publication was so obscure that 

 scientific men, in general, did not see it, and, in addition 

 to this, Darwinism was at that time absorbing the atten- 

 tion of biologists. For these two reasons, Mendel's 

 work remained unnoticed, and of course unappreciated, 

 until it was discovered in 1900 and became the great 

 classic of genetics. Its influence, therefore, dates from 

 1900 rather than from the year of its publication. 



The substance of Mendel's experiments is as follows. 

 Wishing to discover the contributions of each parent to 

 the make-up of their progeny, he chose for his work the 

 simple garden pea, which would breed rai)idly, and ex- 

 hibited well-marked varieties. To magnify his results, 

 he secured hybrids by crossing distinctly different t\pes 

 of peas, and to avoid confusion he considered on\y one 

 character in each experiment. For example, he crossed 

 peas which contrasted in character of lieight, of flower 

 color, and of seeds. In all cases he obtained similar 

 results, so that a single example will sulHce. l^urther- 

 more, he discovered that it made no difference whether 

 the staminate parent was a dwarf and the pistillate 



37 



