The Rediscovery of the Discoverer of the Laws of Heredity
Theresa Bowden

On January 22, Robin Marantz Henig reintroduced us to the work, theories and myths of Gregor Mendel through the discussion of her book The Monk in the Garden: The Lost and Found Genius of Gregor Mendel, the Father of Genetics. Because most of Mendel’s papers were burned by his successor at the monastery in now Brno, Czech Republic, there are few records of his work. Using primarily letters and Mendel’s once-ignored 1865 paper describing his investigations with pea plants, Henig constructs an insightful depiction of Mendel’s personality and experiments. Happily in the spring of 1900, three botanists researching the laws of inheritance in three different countries came to realize that Mendel had found them first, and he was finally acknowledged, eighteen years after his death, as a pioneer in the field of what came to be known as genetics.

Why was such a critical work in the theory of inheritance ignored for 35 years? Mendel tried his best to attract the interest of the scientific community by sending forty reprints of his article to prominent biologists throughout Europe, including Darwin. He only received one reply. Most of the reprints, including Darwin’s, were discovered later with the pages uncut - meaning they were never read. Henig points out that unfortunately Mendel was an obscure friar, from an obscure country published in an obscure journal - he had no connections. And most of the biologists who did read the article would not have had the background to understand Mendel’s mathematics and theories. Perhaps most of all, Mendel’s theories went against the common beliefs of his day - that inheritance is a result of blending from both parents, i.e. a white and a red flower will produce pink offspring. Mendel proposed inheritance of discrete units - later called genes - which were either dominant or recessive. Therefore the offspring of a white and a red flower would be either white or red, depending on which is dominant - not pink. Mendel’s theories were therefore not accepted until several botanists obtained the same results 35 years later.

So was Mendel a genius? Based upon Edison’s famous quote "Genius is one per cent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration," Henig says she believes that "Mendel was the perspiring kind of genius." Mendel worked diligently, meticulously and patiently for many years to obtain his data. Breeding the second generation hybrids of his pea plants was inspirational - other researchers had not gone that far. His background in physics and mathematics allowed Mendel to bring a new perspective to the inheritance issue.

All were welcomed to the lecture by Louise Green, Interim University Librarian and Director of Falvey Library, and a lively introduction was given by Rev. Kail Ellis, Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Robin Henig is a freelance writer specializing in the areas of science and medicine. She received her B.A. in English from Cornell University and her M.S. in Journalism from Northwestern University. After the publication of Henig’s book and the donation to the library of one of the originals of Mendel’s famous 1865 paper by the Augustinians of the Province of St. Thomas of Villanova, Falvey Library decided to establish a special collection of materials related to Mendel’s place in the history of inheritance research. Organized by Bente Polites, Special Collections Librarian, several of these titles will be displayed in the exhibit Gregor Mendel and the Origin of Genetics on the second floor of the library until April 30, 2001. This lecture was jointly sponsored by the Falvey Memorial Library Distinguished Lecture Series and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.