Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1916-10-03
By GARRETT p. sERvIsS.

One Of the greatest scientific adj
vances Of the present time, thing
that every intelligent person ought to
know something about, is the biologi-
cal principle called Mendelism, which
promises eventually to give us an ex-
PLANTATION. OF the mystery OF heredity,
or the inheritance OF characterize
tell why some OF us are like our faith
ers, some like our mothers and some
like more remote ancestors. 1t also
promises to clear up the puzzling
question OF sex.
The story Of Mendelism is a ro-
nance. 1t takes its name from Gre
gor Mendel, ali Austrian peasant boy
who became a monk, and afterward
the abbot OF Brunn, and who, i'll the
intervals OF his clerical labors, made
experiments whose results have as
tonishcd the scientific world and pro-
duced almost a revolution in biology.
He was as great man as Darwin,
though laboring in a narrower field,
and failing 10 reap, in his lifetime,
the fame that he earned. He is an
other example OF the TACT, which
ought to be recorded in letters OF
gold, that the gaining OF wealth and
social distinction is a small affair in
life compared with the advancement
OF knowledge.
Mcndel, had been dead eighteen
years when, in 1900, the worlds great
biologists suddenly saw and compre-
hended the light that he had kindled
IN the midst Of the darkness through
which they were wandering. AT his
torch they relighted their tapers, and
The darkness began to take flight.
Darwin saw the torch, but failed to
touch his taper to il.
Gregor' Mendel, the poor wise,
deep-browed abbot, cultivated peas
IN his eloister garden. where Napol-
con encsmped before Austerlitz,
found in the study OF those simple
kitchen vegetables a way to a higher
glory than that attained by the IRON
handed conqueror. The name of
Mendcl, unpronounced in the wide
world III his own day will now last
as long as that OF Napoleon, and per-
haps longer.
What, then, did Mendol do-what
is Mendelism?
He began with the fact that COM
mon peas have heritsble characters
as well as men have. He experiment
cd by crossing two varieties and
studying their descendants. The
crosses were formed between "tall''
peas, as one parent. and dwarf"
peas as the other. The first gener-
alton OF descendants were all tall.
Externally they all resembled their
tall parent alone, though some were
male and other female.
But when they, in turn, without
any further crossing, produced de-
scendantS, the second generation
came out in the proportion of three
tails to one dwarf. Ii will be OBJ
served that the Distinguishing char
acter OF one OF the original parents,
viz, dwariness, which had been lost
to sight in the first generation, had
now come out again in the second,
though numerically only in the ratio
OF one to three.
You can imagine the delight and
the intelligent curiosity that awoke
in Gregor Mendel at this phenome-
non. He must have felt that nature
was offering him a glimpse behind
her curtain, differentiation OF her
secret OF heredity.
He tried again and found that when
the second generation produced de-
scendants another chapter OF the
story had been written, because now
the single dwarf OF the second genera.
ton produced only dwarfs, and one Of
the three tails produced only tails
while the other two tails each pro-
duced three, tails to one dwarf. This
put the key to the mystery into the
abbot's hand.~Pondering, he turned it
and tho explanation was out
: Here it is: When two varieties
each having distinguishing char.
acter, are crossed, the character Of
one OF the parents will usually pos,
sess the quality Of dominance,