The Scholastic Origins of Mendel's Concepts

Olby R. C. , “Mendel no Mendelian?”, History of science, xvii (1979), 53–73.

Mendel G. , “Versuche über Pflanzenhybriden”, Verhandlungen des Naturforschenden Vereins in Brünn, iv (1866), 3–47.

The following authoritative statement of this view was made by Dunn L. C. in the introductory lecture at the centenary celebration of Mendel's paper by the American Philosophical Society in 1965: “The idea at the basis of Mendel's explanation of the results of his breeding experiments … was that heredity is particulate … in biparental reproduction the particles from the opposite parents are members of a pair.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, cix (4) (1965), 89–195, pp. 189–90. Dunn, however, in a later passage, was not quite so emphatic, writing (p. 190) “The particles are now known as genes and have a corporeal existence as deoxyribonucleic acid but in Mendel's theory they have a purely statistical or symbolic existence”.

Heimans J. , “Mendel's ideas on the nature of hereditary characters. The explanation of fragmentary records of Mendel's hybridizing experiments”, Folia Mendeliana, vi (1971), 91–98.

Olby , op. cit. (ref. 1).

Johannsen W. , Elemente der Exakten Erblichkeitslehre (Jena, 1909, 2nd ed., 1913).

Mendel , op. cit. (ref. 2), 43.

Laertius Diogenes , De clarorum virum philosophorum vitis, dogmatibus et apophthegmatibus, ed. by Cobet Gabriel (Paris, 1828), lib. ix, cap. vii, para. 12, p. 238.

Letter, dated 14 Jan. 1980, from Dr V. Orel of the Moravian Museum in Brno.

Dunn , op. cit. (ref. 3), 195.

Caven R. M. and Cranton J. A. , Symbols and formulae in chemistry (London, 1928), 3.

Blakemore J. T. , Ernst Mach, work, life, influence (Los Angeles, 1972), 34, 304, 319–24.

Iltis H. , Gregor Johann Mendel, Leben, Werk und Wirkung (Berlin, 1924), 19.

This information is taken from a letter of 26 April 1965, from Dr E. Posner in Stoke on Trent, with whom I had an extensive correspondence concerning Mendel's scholastic antecedents.

Nešpor V. , Dějiny University Olomoucké (History of the University of Olmütz), published by the Národní Výbor of the Capital Olomouc (1947).

Esser W. , System der Logik (Elberfeld, 1823).

Grote G. , Aristotle , ed. by Bain Alexander and Robertson C. Croum (London, 1872), vol. i, Categories, 76–154.

Kříženecký J. , “Mendel's zweite erfolglose Lehramtsprüfung im Jahre 1856”, Sudhoffs Archiv für die Geschichte der Medizin und Naturwissenschaft, xlvii (1963), 305–10; George Wilma , “Mendel and the classification of mammals”, Folia Mendeliana, ii (Brno, 1967), 23–28.

Grote , op. cit. (ref. 17), i, 93, 95.

Gomperz T. , Greek thinkers, a history of ancient philosophy (London, 1969), v, ch. viii, p. 1.

Grote , op. cit. (ref. 17), ii, 323.

Naudin Ch. , “Nouvelles recherches sur l'hybridité dans les végétaux”, Nouvelles Archives du Musée des Sciences Naturelles (Paris, 1861), 24–91; “De l'hybridité considerée comme cause de variabilité dans les végétaux”, Annales des sciences naturelles, Botanique série, iii (Paris, 1865), 153–63.

Grote , op. cit. (ref. 17), ii, 15.

Grote , op. cit. (ref. 17), i, 100.

Grote , op. cit. (ref. 17), i, 160, 177, 193.

Grote , op. cit. (ref. 17), i, 184ff.

Grote , op. cit. (ref. 17), i, 160, 177, 193.

Graece Aristotle (Bekkeri) (Academia Regia Borussica, Berolini, 1831–70), mixis: Pp. 315b, 332b; synthesis: P. 165b.

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St Augustine of Hippo, “On the Trinity”, The works of Aurelius Augustinus, vii, ed. by Dodds Marcus (Edinburgh, 1823).

Letter from Dr V. Orel, dated 4 March 1970.

Letter from P. Dr Paulus Engelhardt op, of the German St Thomas Gesellschaft, St Albert Dominikaner-konvent Walberberg, Germany, dated 11 April 1975. See Aquinas St Thomas , Summa theologica (60 vols, Latin and English, London, 1964-).

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Hart , op. cit. (ref. 35), 172.

Hart , op. cit. (ref. 35), 177.

Hart , op. cit. (ref. 35), 22–23.

Schütz , op. cit. (ref. 34), 668–72.

Hart , op. cit. (ref. 35), 173–4.

Esser , op. cit. (ref. 16).

Köhlreuter J. G. , Vorläufige Nachrichte über einige das Geschlecht der Pflanzen betreffende Versuche und Beobachtungen, nebst Fortsetzung 1, 2 und 3 ( Leipzig , 1761–66, reprinted in Ostwald's Klassiker der exakten Wissenschaften, no. 41, Leipzig, 1893).

Gaertner F. V. , Versuche und Beobachtungen über die Bastardenzeugung im Pflanzenreich (Stuttgart, 1849).

Naudin , op. cit. (ref. 22).

Goss J. , “On the variation in the colour of peas occasioned by cross impregnation”, Transactions of the Horticultural Society of London, v (1824), 234–37, followed by a note by the secretary on similar earlier observations.

Seton , ref. in Olby R. , The origins of Mendelism (London, 1966), 44.

Knight T. A. , A selection from the physiological and horticultural papers, published in the Transactions of the Royal and Horticultural Societies (London, 1844), quoted by Olby R. , op. cit. (ref. 46), 42.

Gaertner , op. cit. (ref. 43).

Summarized in Todhunter I. , History of the mathematical theory of probability (Cambridge and London, 1895), 16–17.

Fux J. , Vorlesungen über reine Mathematik (Olmütz, 1839).

Posner E. , “The enigmatic Mendel”, Bulletin of the history of medicine, xi (1966), 430–40, p. 438.

von Ettinghausen A. , Die combinatorische Analyse (Vienna, 1826).

Von Ettinghausen , op. cit. (ref. 52); Jindra J. , “A contribution to the logical nature of Mendel's ideas”, Folia Mendeliana , vi (Brno, 1970), 69–70; idem, “A possible derivation of the Mendelian series”, ibid., 71–74.

Iltis , op. cit. (ref. 13), 51.

Boole G. , The mathematical analysis of logic; being an essay towards a calculus of deductive reasoning (Cambridge, 1847); see also idem, The laws of thought (Dublin, 1854).

Such a connection for instance was suggested in an editorial of the British medical journal, no. 5431 (6 February 1965), 327.

Hončariv R. , “The logical structure of Mendel's ideas”, Folia Mendeliana, vi (Brno, 1970), 65–67; De Morgan A. , Formal logic: Or the calculus of inference, necessary and probable (London, 1847).

Fisher R. A. , “Has Mendel's work been rediscovered?”, Annals of science, i (1936), 115–37; Bennett A. J. , “Mendel and Mendelism: A possible reinterpretation”, Journal of the Institute of Biology [now Biologist], xii (1965), 72–74.

Fisher , op. cit. (ref. 58), 116.

Jindra , op. cit. (ref. 53).

Jindra , op. cit. (ref. 53).

Fisher , op. cit. (ref. 58), 117.

Jaeger W. , “Formen kreativen Denkens an Beispielen bekannter Entdeckungen in der Augenheilkunde”, Klinische Monatshefte für Augenheilkunde, clxii (1973), 268–77.

Kepler J. , Dioptrice. Opera omnia, ed. by Frisch Ch. (Frankfurt and Erlangen, 1858–71), ii, 515–74.

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Hewish A. Scott P. F. and Wills D. , “Interplanetary scintillation of small diameter sources”, Nature, cciii (1964), 1214–7.

Fischer , op. cit. (ref. 58).

Kalmus H. , “A possible early attempt of Mendel's to find a mathematical theory for his hybridization experiments”, Folia Mendeliana , xiii (Brno, 1978), 227–31; Heimans J. , “Gregor Mendel studying the theorem of the golden section”, Folia Mendeliana, xiii (Brno, 1978), 233–6.

Olby , op. cit. (ref. 1), 65, 67.

Orel V. , “The building of greenhouses in the monastery garden of Old Brno at the time of Mendel's experiments”, Folia Mendeliana, x (Brno, 1975), 201–8.

Koestler A. , The act of creation (London, 1964), 656: “The term ‘bisociation’ is meant to point to the independent, autonomous character of the matrices, which are brought into contact in the creative act, whereas associative thought operates among members of a single preexisting matrix. But we have seen that this is a relative, not an absolute criterion”.

Kalmus H. , “Separation and reintegration as phases of evolution”, Philosophy, viii (1943), 155–62.

Koestler , op. cit. (ref. 72), 657.

Koestler , op. cit. (ref. 72), 255.

De Bono E. , The use of lateral thinking (London, 1967).

Editor of the American farmer, “Wordly matters, Indian corn, singular fact”, Evening and morning star, i (1832), 6 (Independence, Missouri).

Weir J. A. , “Amazing maize”, Journal of heredity, liii (1962), 99–100.

Schwann Th. , Mikroskopische Untersuchungen über die Übereinstimmung in der Struktur und dem Wachstum der Pflanzen und Tiere (Berlin, 1839); Schleiden H. J. , Grundzüge der wissenschaftlichen Botanik, nebst einer methodo-logischen Einleitung sum Studium der Pflanzen (Leipzig, 1842–43).

Galton F. , letter to Darwin, dated 19 Dec. 1875, in Pearson K. , Life, letters and labours of Francis Galton (Cambridge, 1914–30), ii, 189–90.

Correns C. , “Mendel's Regel über das Verhalten der Nachkommenschaft der Rassenbastarde”, Berichte der deutschen botanischen Gesellschaft, xviii (1900), 158–68; De Vries H. , “Sur la loi de disjonction des hybrides”, Comptes rendus, cxxx (1900), 845–7; von Tschermak E. , “Über künstliche Kreuzung von Pisum sativum”, Berichte der Deutschen botanischen Gesellschaft, xviii (1900), 83–90.

Stern C. and Stern E. , “A note on the ‘Three rediscoverers’ of Mendelism”, Folia Mendeliana, xiii (Brno, 1978), 237–40.

von Tschermak E. , Memoiren, Leben und Wirken (Berlin & Hamburg, 1958).

Koestler , op. cit. (ref. 72), 658.

Wilkie J. S. , “Some reasons for the rediscovery and appreciation of Mendel's work in the first years of the present century”, The British journal for the history of science, i (1962), 5–17.

Weismann A. , “On the number of polar bodies and their significance in heredity”, in Essays upon heredity and kindred biological problems, trans. by Schönland Poulton , and Shipley (Oxford, 1889), 333–84.

Waldeyer W. , “Karyokinesis and its relation to fertilization”, Quarterly journal of the Microscopical Society, viii (1889), 159–281.

Olby , op. cit. (ref. 1).

Bateson W. and Saunders E. R. , Reports to the Evolution Committee of the Royal Society. Report 1: Experiments undertaken by W.B. and E.R.S. (London, 1902), 122.

Kottler M. J. , “Hugo de Vries and the rediscovery of Mendel's laws”, Annals of science, xxxvi (1979), 517–38.

Heimans , op. cit. (ref. 4), 91.