24 THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA 



ustinian house of St. Thomas in Brnenn was generally spoken of 

 at Koenigskloster. He had long been interested in watching the 

 behavior of various plants cultivated in the garden in experimental 

 conditions, and took great pleasure in this sort of work. The views 

 of Darwin on natural selection had just come into prominence 

 when Mendel, who did not fully agree with Darwin, began his 

 experiments on peas. These experiments were conducted for eight 

 years and Mendel's account of them, "Experiments in Plant Hybri- 

 dization" was publishedf in 1866, one year after they had been 

 communicated to the Bruenn society. In translation this paper 

 occupies 44 pages. In it are detailed the results of his experiments 

 on peas and his conclusions regarding them. Another paper of 

 importance was communicated in 1869 and published the follow- 

 ing year in volume VIII, of the same journal. This paper is 

 entitled "On Hieracium-hybrids Obtained by Artificial Fertiliza- 

 tion" and is his last publication on plant breeding. Besides these 

 two papers we have only two^ other notes published earlier in Verb. 

 Zool. Bot. Verein. Wein, on Scopolia margaritalis in 1853 and on 

 Bruchiis pisi in 1854. In 1868 he was elected abbot of the Koenig- 

 kloster and during the rest of his life he was devoted to other than 

 scientific interests. 



His papers seem to have been known to one scientist only, 

 the botanist Nageli, and he did not appreciate their importance. A 

 single reference to this work occurs in the scientific literature be- 

 fore 1900. It is in a publication of Focke, "Pflanzenmischlinge" 

 published in 1881. It was to this reference that is due the redis- 

 covery of Mendel's papers in 1900. 



In 190C three investigators DeVries,, Correns, Tschermak, in- 

 dependently came upon his two papers and perceived their im- 

 portance The time, 16 years after his death, was now ripe for 

 their appreciation and for the application of the discoveries he had 

 made, and wide recognition has since been accorded Mendel. No 

 field of work is now of greater consequence than that of genetics 

 and of this field his work is the corner stone. 



Mendel's discoveries were undoubtedly contributions of the 

 highest order to the science of heredity, and upon them has been 

 built the superstructure which has made the subject not only a 

 commanding one in biological research but of the greatest signifi- 

 cance for the social sciences. As the result of his experiments 

 Mendel recognized first the principles of the purity of the germ 

 cells and their segregation unm.odified in the second generation, 

 and second the principle of dominance. 



tVehr. Naturf. in Bruenn, Abhandlung. IV., 1S65. 



