GREGOR MENDEL - A LEADING METEOROLOGIST

MENDEL, GREGOR.

Meteorologische Beobachtungen aus Mähren und Schlesien für das Jahr 1866. [In: Verhandlungen des naturforschenden Vereins in Brünn. V. Band. 1866].

Brünn, 1867. 8vo. Entire volume present. Uncut and unopened in the original printed wrappers. A few tears and lacks of paper to extremities. Paper spine (entirely present) kept together by tape. Internally completely fresh. Pp. (160) - 172. [Entire volume: XXII, (2), 87, (1), 236, (2) pp.].

Extremely scarce first edition of the fifth meteorological publication (from the same periodical in which "Über Pflanzen-Hybriden" was published the year before) by the founder of genetics, Gregor Mendel. The paper represents an important contribution to the emergence of exact weather-forecasting and helped found Mendel's reputation as the leading meteorologist of Moravia.

Apart from plant growing and seeding, Gregor Mendel's main interest lay in the field of meteorology, to which he contributed substantially throughout many years of his life.
Mendel was a farmer's son and grew up with farm growing. His great interest in the science of meteorology may be partly explained by his background, as he was very much aware of the tremendous influence of the weather on the productivity and harvesting of crops. The idea behind his precise meteorological observations, the first official one of which he made in 1848, was for him to become able to make reliable weather predictions - a thing which would be of great value to farmers especially.
From 1848 to 1862 Mendel and Dr. Pavel Olexik recorded a series of observations, which they presented at the first meeting of the newly established Brünn Natural Science Society. After that Mendel began supplying the Vienna Meteorological Institute with the data of his daily observations in Brünn. It was due to Mendel and other experts on the subject that the institute began publishing daily weather reports and forecasts in the 1870'ies, as they had been persuaded of the value of such reports and forecasts to farmers.

"Mendel began his meteorological studies in 1856 and was soon recognized as the only authority on this subject in Moravia. In his first meteorological paper, published in 1863, he summarized graphically the results of observations at Brno, using the statistical principle to compare the data for a given year with the average conditions of the previous fifteen years. Between 1863 and 1869, the paper was followed by five similar communications concerned with the whole of Moravia... In 1877, with his support, weather forecasts for farmers in Moravia were issued, the first in central Europe... These studies [i.e. the meteorological ones]... have much in common methodologically with his studies of hybridization. They grew out of his habit of scrupulously collecting and recording data, thinking in quantitative terms, and subjecting observational data to statistical treatment " (D.S.B. IX:279).

"Note that his meteorological work was well known and highly regarded during his lifetime, but is now almost forgotten. By contrast, his work with peas, to which he devoted only eight years, was ignored during his lifetime, but is now highly regarded." (Corcos & Monaghan, Gregor Mendel's Experiments on Plant Hybrids, 1966, p. 32).

According to Dictionary of Scientific Biography, "The "Verhandlungen" was distributed to 134 scientific institutions in various countries, including those in New York, Chicago, and Washington." It is generally accepted that no more than 200 copies of the "Verhandlungen" were published, and the surviving volumes are of great scarcity.

Order-nr.: 49113