V : MENDEL AND HIS THEORY OF 

 HEREDITY * 



IN the case of the former writers whose work 

 has been dealt with in previous articles the 

 life of the individual in question has not 

 seemed of sufficient importance or significance to 

 make it worth while to devote any space to bio- 

 graphical details. But the life of Abbot Mendel 

 is of such peculiar interest, and the story of his 

 achievements is of so unusual a character, that it 

 may not be out of place to deal briefly with it 

 before proceeding to consider the theory with 

 which the name of its author is associated. 



Gregor Johann Mendel, then, was born, the 

 son of a farmer, in Silesia, in the year 1822. He 

 was educated at Olm/ltz, and entered, at the age 

 of twenty-one, as a novice in the Augustinian 

 monastery of Konigenkloster, in Altbrunn. He 

 was ordained priest in 1846, became a teacher in 

 the Realschule in Briinn, and attracted so much 

 attention in that capacity that he was sent by his 

 superiors to Vienna in 1851 to pursue a post- 

 graduate course. After two years' study there he 



* Mendel 's Principles of Heredity. By W. Bateson. Cambridge 

 University Press. 1902. 



Mendelism. By R. Punnett. Cambridge : Macmillan & Bowes. 

 1905. 



Recent Progress in the Study of Variation, Heredity and Evolu- 

 tion. By R. H. Lock. John Murray. 1906. 



Catholic Chiirchmen in Science. By J. J. Walsh. The Dolphin 

 Press. 1906. 



