The Catholic bulletin., 1916-04-29
low The CHURCH
RESTRICTS" SCIENC|
CAREER OF THE ABBE MENDEL
SHOWS THAT THE CHURCH
PERMITS FULLEST LIBERTY IN
THE INVESTIGATION OF THE
TRUTHS OF SCIENCE.

MtHuellSHl, one Oh IHG HloSL DIll'
liant and practical discoveries in mod.
ern biology, and the work OF an Au-
sustinian Friar called Mendel, may
le shortly described as an experiment.
II method of investigating the laws of
leredity, writes Father Erlington, O.P.
rhe actual work of Mendel remained
Unknown to the world for over thirty
years, until it was brought to light by
biologists who were conducting Obser-
1ations and experiments similar to
hose which the Friar had carried on
n the obscurity OF his German con
yent. Today, there is no question,
Mendelism may be considered to
throw a clear light on some of the
greatest scientific puzzles in life-in-
yestigation.
Mendel was an Austrian who came
Of the small farming classes in a
country which is noted for the fervent
Catholicity of its people, namely, 81
esia. Born of thrifty parents, young
Mendel was enabled to secure the
advantage of a first-class education.
The Augustinians had not q little to
10 with his early academic successes,
and so it came about, that, when CIV
en- the choice of worldly career, or
hat Of the cloister he chose the lat
ter as being most suitable to his stu
lious temperament and his fervent
disposition; he joined the Order at
heir famous establishment of Ko-
ligskloster in 1S43, at the age of one
and-twenty, and owing to his ad-
vanced attainments, he was given the
habit without delay A noVicial pc
riod of one year came afterwards, and
having performed a severe course of
philosophy and theology, he was sent,
on his ordination, in 1851, to Vienna
university, where he devoted himself
to natural science, returning home to
teach physics at the principal civic
college of Brunn where he remained
until, in 1868, when he was elected
prior of his monastery. 1t was during
this professoriato at Brunn that he car
ried out his celebrated experiments of
crossing different varieties of edible
peas and other plants, along lines
which Mr.. Burbank has made SO ia
miliar to Americans.
This was in the early fifties when,
as will be remembered, the origin of
species and their nature were being
much discussed as a result of Dar-
wins work on the subject. At that
time, however, Mendel declared, on a
study of the matter, that he was un-
able to accept the Darwinian idea,
and set about proving his case (as
far as possible, of. course) by adopting
methods which were completely differ
ent from those OF the English scien-
tist. AS will be recollected, Darwin
observed and collected a number of
facts and from these facts, propound-
ed an ingenious theory. Mendel
went to work and drew conclusions
which were the results and the ex-
preston of observations recorded
with mathematical Professionalism
conclusions have again and again
been verified. 1t was twelve years,
however, before Mendel gave his ex.
perimental results to the world-in
1865, in a paper called Experiments
| in the HybridiZation of Plants.
Mendel did not confine his expert
ments to plants; he extended them to
cross-breeding with different species
of bees, with view to ascertaining
the mode in which the special char.
acteristics of the several races were
inherited and in order to accomplish
this, he had at one time some fifty
hives of bees under observation, con
tanning varieties collected from all
parts of the world At the same time,
the Friar conducted some experiments
in meteorology, and held the view
that there is a certain connection be-
tween the character of the spots on
the sun and the condition of the
weather.
In 1868 he was elected Prior of Ko-
nigskloster. and perforce his duties
curtailed his scientific experiments,
if, indeed, they did not wholly end
them. Church persecution began in
Germany about this time and Men
dePs establishment, though in Nor
avia, did not escape the common fate;
Mendel refused to submit to the eX-
orbitant taxes levied on his monastery
and in 1872 the institution and it's
lands were sequestrated and turned
into municipal property. The Friar,
himself an exile from his real home,
shortly after leaving the monastery,
went into a decline and died in 1884,
a victim of morbid melancholia
brought on by anti-clerical aggression.
Mendelis claim to real fame lies in
his discovery of definite laws and Sc
quences which occur in the distribu-
| tion of the characters exhibited by
| the offspring of crosses between diff
ferent varieties of a given species of
plant; Darwin had taught that types
were accidental. So, then, it is GER
tain that Mendels principles throw
much light upon the complex problem
of heredity; for, he showed as the re.
suit of experiments conducted, that a
certain type which remains in abey-
ance in given generation must re,
appear in another generation in sue.
cession of series; the dominant char
acteristic, despite environment (the
Darwinian idea), is certain to recur
in the process of generations. Men.
del really was the first to show that
definite law governs the transmits
sion in individuals of hereditary char
acters, and that the transmission oi