46 
Mendel’s Laws of Inheritance. 
THE APPLICATION OF 
MENDEL’S LAWS OF INHERITANCE 
TO BREEDING PROBLEMS. 
In consequence of the re-discovery of Mendel’s Laws of 
Inheritance, 1 published originally as far back as 1865, 
attention has again been called to the scientific study of 
breeding problems. Investigations are now being pushed 
forward by many workers, and the extraordinary certainty 
with which the complex problems of heredity can be 
unravelled has shown that the hopes of a few years ago, 
that breeding would become a precise subject, are rapidly 
being realised. 
Of the man directly responsible for this, Gregor Johann 
Mendel, we know singularly little. He was born in the 
Austrian Silesia at Heinzendorf, in July, 1822. In 1843, he 
entered the Augustine convent at Altbriinn as a novice, becom- 
ing a priest in 1847. From 1853 to 1868 he was teaching 
natural science in the Briinn Realschule. Whilst so engaged 
he carried out numerous experiments in cross-breeding, using 
many kinds of plants for the purpose. With the exception of 
his classical experiments with peas, which led him to enunciate 
the now well-known laws, the existing records of these are 
fragmentary, and beyond some preliminary investigations on 
beans and Hieracia, we know nothing further of them than 
is contained in a short series of letters sent to the German 
biologist, Nageli. These letters have recently been published 
by Correns, but unfortunately they reveal next to nothing 
of the man himself. In 1868 he became Abbot of Briinn, 
and shortly afterwards he appears to have abandoned his 
scientific work. He died in 1884, an unknown man as far 
as the scientific world was concerned. His work was not 
re-discovered until 1900, but in the few years that have 
passed since then its influence has been so far reaching that 
it has completely altered our outlook in more than one branch 
of the study of genetics. 
On its re-discovery six years ago, many experiments were 
started to determine whether Mendel’s Laws of Inheritance 
were of general application. The majority of these have been 
concerned with plants, but investigations have also been carried 
1 See “ Experiments with Wheat and Barley Hybrids illustrating Mendel’s 
Laws of Heredity.” Journal K.A.S.E., Vol. 65, 1901, pp. 337-315. 
