A KINDLY BIOGRAPHY OF MENDEL, MONK BIOLOGIST.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 494, 1 July 1932, Page 6

A KINDLY BIOGRAPHY OF MENDEL, MONK BIOLOGIST.

To-day’s Special Article

The Bishop Regarded his Experiments with Mice Little Less than Immoral.

By

H.A.Y.

From art unions and horse racing to maternity, most of us desire to know if there is such a thing as the law of chance. In events of our own making there may be—and it is still permitted to talk of — luck, but to the scientist there is neither chance nor luck; all is governed by laws, and in the working of those laws is the delight of his research. Darwin, Galton, Vries and many others have traced the law of heredity in both plants and animals, but as far as they have gone there is always a break in the chain which upsets mathematical calculations as applied to living things.

ytili MONK BIOLOGIST_ MENDEL has come nearer a mathematical principle in heredity than any other worker, and he has been honoured by all men of science since 1900, when, thirty-five years "after his death, the results of his researches were “ rediscovered ” and made known to the world. With German thoroughness Hugo litis in his biography* has followed such steps in Mendel’s reasoning as lead to what he names “ Mendel’s rule.”

In the marriage of black and white there will be a regular proportion of white and black, and half-caste, the regularity being affected by the ‘‘dominant” quality of one parent, the mutations thereafter are confused by further unions until the “ rule ” is lost in the many side-tracks of heredity. Mendel had been dead twenty years before his discoveries were made known to a few, and then many of his writings had been destroyed. From the theory to the man is not a long step, and Herr litis has given most of his attention to the latter. Priest and Teacher.

Mendel was born in Heinzendorf, by the Moravian Mountains. He was selected by the teacher of his village school to go, as we should say, to high school, and from the first showed a special talent in nature study. He was sturdy, energetic, and good at farm work, which occupied his spare time. His alert mind pushed his body beyond its natural limit, and illnesses resulted. In 1841 there was family knowledge that Mendel 4 was aiming at the priesthood, and in 1843 he was accepted by the Augustine monks and was renamed Gregor. Four years later he was ordained as a priest. In 1849 he became a teacher at Znaim High School, and was given mathematics and Greek- as his subjects. To become a recognised registered teacher an examination had to be passed, and Gregor Mendel was “ plucked.”

By the advice of his friends he entered the University at Vienna for further education. B}' 1854 he was again a teacher. This time at Brunn Model School, but at no time was he qualified by examination. He made the mistake of arguing w r ith his tutors and brought all things to the test of his own reasoning. He became a student of Darwin, reading that naturalist’s works with a critical mind. His experiments in the breeding of mice w’ere looked upon with disapproval by his bishop and priestly friends, it being considered little less than immoral, and Gregor turned his attention to botany and the

crossing of plants as less likely to annoy anyone. His experiments with peas appear to be the foundation of his “ rule.” litis hesitates to name it a law. Mendel grey very heavy and fat for his height, and we may vision this obese little man pottering about his garden with muslin and camel hair brush doing the work usually accomplished by flying insects, or indoors on wet days seated by his microscope, all unaware that, many years after, his name would become incorporated in all civilised language. When he became a prelate his duties as such ended, or almost ended, his experiments as a botanist. An Investigator Only. Compared with Burbank. Mendel seems to have been an investigator merely, whereas the former was a constructive botanist, bringing about the birth of new varieties. Mendel took a great interest in bees (the monks favoured this idea because honey might be had), and Mendel experimented here with breeding without being charged with immorality. He found that bees did not breed in conformity w’ith plant and animal life, as their sexual routine was peculiar.

He kept records of meteorology with care and exactness, and, like our late Mr Wragge, drew comparisons between sunspots, planetary disturbances and our earthly weather and agricultural crops, and he was something of a weather prophet. In his writings there is no evidence that he was a true “ religious,” but that may be due to his wish to keep things of the mind and of the soul apart. He put up a great fight against the taxation monastery, of which he was abbot, and it was whilst this fight was in progress that he died (1884). Herr litis has written a kindly biography and gathered data with patience and difficulty. Even in those days (the eighteen •hundreds) the life in Mendel’s country was mediaeval in character, and the Church had property and power and the supervision of lives other than those willingly surrendered to her, and much of Mendel’s history reads as if he had lived hundreds of years earlier. The translation has been done by Eden and Cedar Paul, who have succeeded in eliminating the German idiom without lessening the evidence of painstaking accuracy of the Teutonic author. There are graphs, portraits and other illustrations.

* “ Life of Mendel,” by Hugo litis (George Allen and Unwin).