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Friends, Family And Contemporaries Of Charles Darwin
GREGOR MENDEL 1822-1884
By William Bateson
From Mendel's Principles Of Heredity William Bateson. 1913
GREGOR MENDEL, 1866
Enlarged from a group of the brethren of the Konigskloster
GREGOR JOHANN MENDEL was born on July 22, 1822, at Heinzendorf bei Odrati, in the "Kuhland" district of Austrian Silesia. His father was a small peasant proprietor, being the first of the family to raise himself to that degree, and he held his land by a kind of socage, performing "Robot" (agricultural labour) for the lord. *
* I regret, that the short paragraph which I published in 1902 respecting Mendel's career contained several inaccuracies. The materials supplied to me were meagre and in many respects incorrect. Somewhat fuller sources of information are before me now. Of these the chief is an annotated report of the oration delivered by Mendel's nephew, Dr Alois Schindler, in July, 1902, at the unveiling of a memorial tablet at Heinzendorf. Other facts are to be gathered from Mendel's letters to Nageli dated 1866-1873 (Bibliography, 197); an article by Dr E. von Proskowetz in Neue Freie Presse, 24 July, 1902; a similar notice by Dr Wiesner in the Wiener Abendpost) November, 1901; and from a somewhat fuller account published by Dr H. von Iltis in Tagesbote aus Mahren, 1906. I have to thank Dr Janetschek and Dr von Niessl for assistance given in the course of inquiries which I made in Briinn, and both Dr Ferdinand Schindler and his brother, Dr Alois Schindler, for letters giving many interesting particulars respecting their uncle. I understand that Dr von Iltis has a fuller biography in hand. My most serious misstatement was to the eftect that in his later years Mendel devoted himself to the Ultramontane Controversy. This was a complete mistake. The dispute in which he engaged was, as is described above, of a totally different nature.
The name Mendel suggests a Jewish origin, but it is practically certain that the suggestion is incorrect. The family appears in the Church Register of the seventeenth century the earlier ones were burnt by the Hussites usually under the name Mendel, whereas it was not till the reign of Joseph II (1765-1790) that the Jews in Austria assumed definite surnames. At the time of the Thirty Years' War Kuhland was a protestant district, and several of Mendel's ancestors were of that persuasion. His four grandparents were all of the local Heinzendorf stock, which may be described as a German colony surrounded by a Slavonic population. It is recorded of his father that he took special interest in fruit-culture, initiating his son at an early age into the methods of grafting. Mendel's maternal uncle, Anton Schwirtlich, was evidently a man of intellectual tastes, which is shown by the fact that he started private classes for the children of Heinzendorf who could not walk so far as the neighbouring village, for in Heinzendorf itself there was at that time no regular school. Mendel was thus able to say with some pride that he came from an educational family.
On the death of Schwirtlich a government-school was established which Mendel attended as a young boy. His talent was noticed and encouraged by the master. At this time also two older boys who had gone away to the school at Leipnik fell in with Mendel during their holidays, and excited his ambition, with the result that he asked his parents to let him study, and eventually he too was sent to Leipnik at 11 years old, though this involved considerable sacrifice on the part of the family. Here he distinguished himself so much that it was decided to continue his education at the gymnasium at Troppau, a course which finished with a year at Olmiitz. The parental resources were severely taxed by such expenses, and Mendel was only enabled to complete his course through the generosity of a younger sister, who voluntarily contributed a part of her dowry for this purpose. In after years he repaid her advance many times over, himself providing the education of her three sons, his nephews.
At Troppau one of the teachers was an Augustinian, and it is surmised that perhaps his description of the scholarly tranquillity of the cloister may have turned Mendel's thoughts towards a monastic life. However that may have been, when his time at the gymnasium was ended he became a candidate for admission to the Augustinian house of St Thomas in Briinn, an institution generally spoken of as the Konigskloster. His application was successful, and he was elected with a view to his taking part in the educational work which then devolved on the institution. On admission he took the name of Gregor "in religion," Johann being his baptismal name. In 1847 ne was ordained a priest.
At the expense. of the cloister he was sent in 1851 to the University of Vienna, where he remained till 1853, studying mathematics, physics, and natural sciences'*. Returning to Briinn he became a teacher, especially of physics, in the Realschule. He appears to have taken great pleasure in teaching and to have been extraordinarily successful in interesting his pupils in their work. He continued this occupation till 1868, when he was elected Abbot, or more strictly, Pralat of the Konigskloster.
* To this period belong two notes which he published in the Verh zool. bot. Verein, Wien, on Scopolia margaritalis (1853, in. p. 116) and Bruchus pisi (ibid. 1854, iv. p 27). In these papers he speaks of himself as a pupil of Kollar.
The experiments which have made his name famous throughout the world were carried on in the large garden of the cloister. From the time of his novitiate he began experimental work, introducing various plants into the garden and watching their behaviour under treatment. He was fond of showing these cultures to his friends. Dr von Niessl relates how on one occasion he was taken to see Ficaria calthaefolia and Ficaria ranunculoides (two forms now regarded as varieties of Ranunculus Ficaria} which had for some years been cultivated side by side without manifesting any noticeable change. Mendel jokingly said: "This much I do see, that nature cannot get on further with species making in this way. There must be something more behind."
With the views of Darwin which at that time were coming into prominence Mendel did not find himself in full agreement, and he embarked on his experiments with peas, which as we know he continued for eight years. The results were communicated to the Briinn Society in 1865 and published in 1866, but they passed unheeded The subsequent paper on Hieraeium appeared in 1869, meeting a similar fate.
During his period of scientific work Mendel, as we now know, was engaged on a great variety of cognate researches. In his letters to Nageli there are allusions to some of these subjects, but unhappily few statements of results. His largest undertaking besides the work on Pisim was an investigation of the heredity of bees. He had 50 hives under observation. He collected queens of all attainable races, European, Egyptian, and American, and effected numerous crosses between these races, though it is known that he had many failures. Attempts were made to induce the queens to mate in his room, which he netted in with gauze for the purpose, but it was too small or too dark, and these efforts were unsuccessful. We would give much to know what results he obtained. In view of their genetic peculiarities a knowledge of heredity in bees would manifestly be of great value. The notes which he is known to have made on these experiments cannot be found, and it is supposed by some that in the depression which he suffered before his death they were destroyed.
In 1905 I had the pleasure of visiting the Konigskloster, hoping that some trace of the missing books might be discovered. I was most courteously received by the present Pralat and the brethren of the cloister. My thanks are due in particular to Dr Janetschek for the assistance he gave me. It is to him that I owe the photographs of Mendel given in this volume. I saw the hives which had been used standing in their places, but the note books are gone*. A rich harvest of discovery awaits those who may successfully repeat the work.
* On chance of finding something I obtained a file of the local bee-journal of Briinn, but beyond the fact that Mendel was a Vice-President of the Verein, whose organ it is, I could discover in it nothing relating to him.
With his appointment as Pralat his researches may be said to have ended. To Nageli he wrote that he hoped that after an interval his elevation might enable him to find better opportunities for study, but it was not to be. In 1872 the Government passed a law imposing special taxes on the property of religious houses. This enactment Mendel conceived to be unjust and he decided to resist, claiming that all citizens should be equal in law, and that if these taxes were imposed on one class of institution they should be imposed on all. He thus took up a position which in England we should call that of a "Passive Resister." At first several monasteries stood out with the Konigskloster, but gradually they conformed, Mendel alone remaining firm. The quarrel involved him in protracted trouble and litigation. High emissaries are said to have visited him proposing a compromise, and even offering honours in case of submission. Old friends and acquaintances tried to influence him, but it was all in vain. He attended neither to cajolement nor menace. The property of the house was eventually distrained upon, but he did not give in. He became also involved in the racial controversies which are often rife in 'this part of Austria, and it is only too certain that the last ten years of his life were passed in disappointment and bitterness. From being a cheerful, friendly man he became suspicious and misanthropic. During this period he fell into ill-heath, contracting a chronic nephritis, of which he died January 6, 1884.
As to the propriety of his action in the great quarrel with the Government I have no means of forming an opinion. It is nevertheless interesting to know that a few years after his death the tax was removed without debate or dispute.
For many years he attended closely to meteorology and published his records annually in the Briinn Abhandlungen. He also took a great interest in sunspots, making such observations on them as he could by simple means, drawing them and recording the frequency of their occurrence. He was among those who incline to the view that there is a connection between the appearance of spots on the sun and meteorological events on the earth. His notes on this subject are also lost. He served a term as President of the Naturforscher Verein in Briinn. That he was credited with good faculties for business is shown by the fact that he was chosen to be Chairman of the Moravian Hypotheken-Bank in that city. He is said also to have attained considerable skill as a chess-player, and he composed a good many problems which however were not published. This faculty reappears in one of his nephews.
His handwriting is remarkable for its extreme neatness, every letter being formed with meticulous precision.
In Heinzendorf, his native village, he is remembered as having been the organiser of a fire-brigade. When he eventually became famous, the erection of a new fire-station was used as an opportunity of commemorating him, and a memorial tablet was placed over the building in his honour.
The types of the great discoverers are most various. To the naturalist the fact is full of meaning-. The wild, uncertain, rapid flash of genius, the scattered, half-focussed daylight of generalisation, the steady, slowly-perfected ray of penetrative analysis, are all lights in which truth may be seen. Mendel's faculty was of the latter order. From the fragmentary evidence before us we can in all probability form a fairly true notion of the man, with his clear head, strong interest in practical affairs, obstinate determination, and power of pursuing an abstract idea.
The total neglect of his work is known to have been a serious disappointment to him, as well it might. He is reported to have had confidence that sooner or later it would be noticed, and to have been in the habit of saying "Meine Zeit wird schon kommen!" This episode in the history of science is not a very pleasant one to contemplate. There are of course many similar examples, but there must be few in which the discovery so long neglected was at once so significant, so simple, and withal so easy to verify. The scientific world may comfort itself with the thought that in this case it sinned through inadvertence. With the exception of Nageli perhaps none of the leading naturalists ever saw the paper on peas. We would like to know whether Mendel made any other attempt to interest his contemporaries in his discovery. Probably having tried Nageli and failed, he gave up further efforts.
So far as I have discovered there was, up to 1900, only one reference to Mendel's observations in scientific literature*, namely that of Focke, Pflanzenmischlinge, 1881, p. 109, where it is simply stated that Mendel's numerous experiments on Pisum gave results similar to those obtained by Knight, but that he believed he had found constant numerical ratios among the types produced by hybridisation. In the same work a similar brief reference is made to the paper on Hieracium. For these references we may now be grateful since it was 'through them that the papers were rediscovered.
* The Hieracium paper is referred to by Peter, Engler's hot. jalub. Bde. v and vi, 1884, but only in its systematic bearings.
The fact that the Brlinn journal is rather scarce does not in itself explain why the work was not noticed. Such a circumstance has seldom long delayed general recognition. The cause is unquestionably to be found in that neglect of the experimental study of the problem of Species which supervened on the general acceptance of the Darwinian doctrines. The problem of Species, as Kolreuter, Gartner, Naudin, Wichura, and the other hybridists conceived it, attracted thenceforth no workers. The question, it was imagined, had been answered and the debate ended. No one felt much interest in the matter. A host of other lines of work were suddenly opened up, and in 1865 the more original investigators naturally found those new methods of research more attractive than the tedious observations of the hybridisers, whose inquiries were supposed,* moreover, to have led to no definite result.
Nevertheless the total neglect of such a discovery is not easy to account for. Those who are acquainted with the literature of this branch of inquiry will know that the French Academy offered a prize in 1861 to be awarded in 1862 on the subject "Etuditr les Hy brides ve'gdtaux au point de vue de leur fdconditt et de la perpttuite' de leurs caracteres." This subject was doubtless chosen with reference to the experiments of Godron of Nancy and Naudin, then of Paris. Both these naturalists competed, and the accounts of the work of Godron on Dat^t,ra and of Naudin on a number of species were published in the years 1864 and 1865 respectively. Both, especially the latter, are works of high consequence in the history of the science of heredity. In the latter paper Naudin clearly enunciated what we shall henceforth know as the Mendelian conception of the dissociation of characters of cross-breds in the formation of the germ-cells, though apparently he never developed this conception.
In the year 1864, George Bentham, then President of the Linnean Society, took these treatises as the subject of his address to the Anniversary meeting on the 24th May, Naudin's work being known to him from an abstract, the full paper having not yet appeared. Referring to the hypothesis of dissociation which he fully described, he said that it appeared to be new and well supported, but required much more confirmation before it could be held as proven. (J. Linn. Soc. Bot. viu. Proc. p. xiv.)
In 1865. the year of Mendel's communication to the Briinn Society, appeared Wichura's famous treatise on his experiments with Salix to which Mendel refers. There are passages in this memoir which come very near Mendel's principles, but it is evident from the plan of his experiments that Mendel had conceived the whole of his ideas before that date.
In 1868 appeared the first edition of Darwin's Animals and Plants, marking the very zenith of these studies, and thenceforth the decline in the experimental investigation of Evolution and the problem of Species has been steady. With the rediscovery and confirmation of Mendel's work by de Vries, Correns and Tschermak in 1900 a new era begins.
That Mendel's work, appearing as it did at a moment when several naturalists of the first rank were still occupied with these problems, should have passed wholly unnoticed, will always remain inexplicable, the more so as the Briinn Society exchanged its publications with most of the Academies of Europe, including both the Royal and Linnean Societies.
Naudin's views were well known to Darwin and are discussed in Animals and Plants (ed. 1885, n. p. 23); but, put forward as they were without full proof, they could not command universal credence. Darwin took the objection that Naudin's ideas were not compatible with cases of reversion, though as we now know, such cases are perfectly consistent with the phenomenon of segregation. Gartner, too, had adopted opposite views; and Wichura, working with cases of another order, had proved the fact that some hybrids breed true. Consequently it is not to be wondered at that Darwin was sceptical. Moreover, the Mendelian idea of the "hybrid-character," or heterozygous form, was unknown to him, a conception without which the hypothesis of dissociation of characters is quite imperfect.
Had Mendel's work come into the hands of Darwin, it is not too much to say that the history of the development of evolutionary philosophy would have been very difierent from that which we have witnessed.
