How We Get Mendel

Wrong, and Why It Matters

Challenging the Narrative
of Mendelian Genetics

Kostas Kampourakis

@ CRC Press
Taylor & Francis Group
Boca Raton London New York

CRC Press is an imprint of the

Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Contents
List of Figures vii
List of Tables xii
Preface: "Gregor Mendel, the First Geneticist" xiii
About the Author xx
Acknowledgments xxi

PART I Anachronistic Mendelism

Chapter 1 Mendel Was not a Geneticist ahead of His Time 3

The Stereotypical Narrative about Mendel's Work and Findings 3
What Mendel Actually Wrote in "Experiments on Plant Hybrids" 7
Mendel Did Not Discover the "Laws" of Heredity 14

Chapter 2 Mendel Was a Brilliant Experimentalist of His Time 21

Mendel Was not ahead of His Time 21
The Influence of the Moravian Socioeconomic Context
and Breeding Practices 23
The Influence of the Research Tradition of Late 18th- and Early
19th-century Plant Hybridists 26
The Influence of Vienna's Academic Botany 29
The Nature of Fertilization: Mendel's Possible Contribution
to the Science of His Time 32

Chapter 3 Speculating about Heredity 36

Theories of Heredity of the Latter Half of the 19th Century 36
Spencer's Speculations about Hereditary Particles 38
Charles Darwin, "Pangenesis", and Continuous Variation 40
"Pangenesis" Put to the Test 46

Chapter 4 The Path to Genetics 50

Francis Galton and Discontinuous Variation 50
The Advances in Cytology of the 1870s 57
August Weismann and the "Germ Plasm" 60

Chapter S The Reification of the "Lonely Genius" 66

Was Nägeli Really to Blame for Mendel's Neglect? 66
Mendel's "Rediscovery" in 1900 72
Bateson Founds "Mendelian Genetics" 77
 Contents
vi

PART II Social Mendelism

Chapter 6 Mendel's Great Defender 85

Weldon Criticizes "Mendelism" 85

Bateson Fights Back—Fiercely 89

^ • 94
Treasuring Exceptions ^
The Punnett Square 98

Chapter 7 Chromosomes, "Factors", and Genes 104

A Chromosomal Basis for Heredity 104
Chromosome Linkage 108
From the Mendelian "Factors" to the "Gene" Concept 112

Chapters "Mendelian" Eugenics 121

Gabon's Dream 121

"Feeblemindedness" Becomes a Mendelian Recessive Trait 127
A Natural Experiment in the Study of "Feeblemindedness" 132
The War Against the "Feebleminded" 136

Chapter 9 Geneticists' Attitudes Toward "Mendelian" Eugenics 148

Geneticists Accepting Goddard's Mendelian Recessive Account

of "Feeblemindedness" 148
Goddard's Theory under Attack 156
Geneticists Criticizing the Mendelian Recessive Account of
"Feeblemindedness" 160
On Scientists Being Eugenicists 168

Chapter 10 Mendelian Genetics and the Nazi Racial Hygiene 175

U.S. Racism Meets Nazi Racial Hygiene 175

Mendelian Genetics and the Nuremberg Laws 182
Mendelian Genetics and the Teaching of Racial Science
in Schools 187

Conclusions: Emending the Teaching of School Genetics 199

References 209
Index
221