FOLIA MENDELIANA 44-45, 2009

Abstract
† WALTHER MANN
642 85 Darmstadt, Claudiusweg 19 B, Germany

Reminiscences on Gregor Mendel kept alive among Theresia Mendel’s descendants are summarized with respect to Mendel‘s birthplace and family, Abbot Mendel’s financial support of his nephews Alois, Ferdinand and Johann Schindler, the sons of Mendel’s sister Theresia. Mendel’s letters home from the Old Brno monastery are discussed. The complicated way of the original of Mendel’s manuscript on pea hybrids from Czechoslovakia to Germany is portrayed.

Abstract
ANNA MATALOVÁ
Mendelianum Musei Moraviae, Zelný trh 6, Brno, genetika@mzm.cz

Minutes of the meeting of the Nature Research Society committee in Brno on February 10, 1866 confirming the receipt of Mendel’s paper on pea hybrids for print emerged in Germany along with the original manuscript of Mendel’s Pisum paper.

Abstract
JAN JANKO
Archives of the Czech Academy of Science, Husova 4, Praha 2, janko@archiv.cas.cz

This study opens its discourse by asking to what extent and in precisely what way could Mendel have been influenced by Naturphilosophie; it principally concentrates on two problem areas related to the issue of the theoretical (philosophical) context of Mendel’s discoveries. In the first place, it is a question of the elements and then the mathematical expression of the laws discovered. The article underlines the importance of Mendel’s spatial and temporal environment as being highly relevant to answering those questions. As for the elements I stress the significance of how they were understood by Mendel’s teacher F. Unger: as morphological, but at any rate organized entities, not as chemical substances (existing historiography was biased by presenting a “selection” from Unger’s statements). In relation to the 9th letter of Mendel to Nägeli this markedly diminishes the probability that Mendel may have understood his elements and endowments as chemical individuals.

As for the mathematical foundations of Mendel’s theory, it is repeatedly pointed out that there is a close relationship with statistics (meteorological and phytogeographical), the discourse has been expanded by including various Pythagorean trends of that time as well as efforts towards a clear, rationally approachable expression compressed in a single symbol (the so-called combinatorial rationalism).

Abstract
PIOTR KÖHLER
The Jagiellonian University, Cracow, Poland, piotr.kohler@uj.edu.pl

The paper demonstrates the unfamiliar history of Lysenkoism in Poland. The analysis shows that Lysenkoism was a Stalinist interference in the country’s scientific life, but despite the political support and promotional activity, as well as the enthusiasm of a few scientists, it was never truly accepted by the majority of scientists, and was publicly abandoned as soon as it became safe to do so.