72 
A  Pilgrimage  to  Brilnn. 
(Am.  Jour.  Pharme 
\   February,  1915. 
the  meals.  In  the  dining-room,  when  we  entered  it,  were  over 
twenty  monks  assembled,  all  dressed  in  long  black  gowns,  their  hair 
cut  short  and  crowns  shaven.  Father  Barcina  took  his  place  at  the 
centre  of  the  U,  placing  me  on  his  right  and  Doctor  litis  on  his  left, 
the  monks  then  arranging  themselves  along  the  sides.  After  a  short 
grace  spoken  by  Father  Barcina  a  simple  but  bounteous  meal  was 
served.  Eatables  and  drinkables  of  various  kinds  were  there  in 
abundance,  but,  being  a  teetotaler,  I  was  permitted  to  devote  my 
attention  chiefly  to  the  former.  After  the  meal  was  finished,  all 
stood  while  a  lengthy  responsive  thanksgiving  service  was  chanted, 
one  long,  thin,  hollow-eyed  monk  taking  the  solo  part,  the  rest 
responding  in  unison,  making  the  great  hall  resound  with  their 
sonorous  voices.  This  was  all  in  Latin,  of  course,  and,  as  I  had  been 
forgetting  in  eleven  years  what  I  had  learned  of  Latin  at  Antioch 
in  as  many  weeks,  few  of  the  words  were  intelligible  to  me,  but  the 
fervent  expressions  and  the  music  belonged  to  that  universal  lan- 
guage which  is  neither  learned  nor  forgotten ;  they  were  understood. 
After  dinner  in  company  with  the  abbot  and  several  other 
monks,  we  made  a  tour  of  the  buildings  and  grounds.  Several  of 
the  reception  rooms  have  been  purposely  kept  essentially  in  the  con- 
dition in  which  they  were  when  occupied  by  Mendel,  even  to  hav- 
ing his  chess-board  resting  open  on  a  small  table  and  arranged  ready 
for  his  favorite  game.  A  second  favorite  recreation  was  bowling, 
and  the  monks  pointed  out  on  the  walls  of  the  bowling-alley  pen- 
cilled scores  which  they  declared  had  been  placed  there  by  the 
former  prelate.  On  the  third  floor,  which  is  occupied  by  an  exten- 
sive library  containing  many  very  old  books,  Mendel's  telescope 
still  stood  on  the  ledge  of  one  of  the  small  dormer  windows,  for  it 
must  be  remembered  that  Mendel's  scientific  interests  were  not 
narrowly  limited  to  the  problems  of  heredity,  but  he  studied  sun- 
spots,  and  made  important  contributions  to  meteorology  as  well, 
faithfully  collecting  for  many  years  the  first  climatological  data  for 
that  section  of  the  world.  The  splendid  results  of  his  investigations 
in  heredity  tend  to  obscure  the  importance  of  his  work  in  other 
lines.  Just  beside  the  Monastery  is  the  little  garden  spot  in  which 
the  classic  pea-experiments  were  performed,  still  enclosed  by  a  picket 
fence,  but  not  now  used  as  a  garden.  On  a  high  terrace  back  of 
the  chapel  is  a  row  of  bee-houses,  long  since  unoccupied  and  fallen 
into  decay,  in  which  Mendel  was  also  attempting  to  carry  on  experi- 
ments in  heredity,  but  of  which  no  detailed  account  has  yet  been 
