DE VRIES, HUGO. - THE REDISCOVERY OF MENDEL'S LAWS - THE BIRTH OF MODERN GENETICS.

Sur la loi de disjonction des hybrides. (The Law of Segregation of Hybrides - Das Spaltungsgesetzt der Bastarde).

Paris, Gauthier-Villars, 1900. 4to. No wrappers. In: "Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Séances de L'Academie des Sciences", Tome 130, No 13. Titlepage to tome 130 a. pp. (809-) 864. (Entire issue offered). De Vries paper: pp. 845-847. Rather poor paperquality, fragile. Small nicks to margins of titlepage.

First appearance of a milestone paper in genetics being the "REDISCOVERY" OF MENDEL'S LAWS OF HEREDITY" - This paper, together with the two other papers from the same year by Carl Correns and Erich Tschermak, laid the foundations of a new scientific discipline that, in 1906, was given the name "genetics", and less than a century later, rose to become the leading science in Western society. This French announcement was published 4 days before his longer paper "Das Spaltungsgesetzt der Hybride", in which Mendel is mentioned.

De Vries completed most of his hybridization experiments without knowing about Mendel's work. Based on his own results, de Vries drew the same conclusions as Mendel. De Vries published his work in 1900, first in French then in German. In the French report there was no mention of Mendel, but this was amended by de Vries in the German paper. It is possible that de Vries read Mendel's paper before he published his own, and included Mendel's name in the later printing when he realized that other people also knew about Mendel's work. De Vries may have thought that his own conclusions were superior to Mendel's.

"During the 1880s, de Vries became interested in heredity. In 1889 he published Intracellular Pangenesis, in which he critically reviewed previous research on inheritance and advanced the theory that elements in the nucleus, ‘pangenes’, determine hereditary traits. To investigate his theories, he began breeding plants in 1892 and by 1896 had obtained clear evidence for the segregation of characters in the offspring of crosses in 3:1 ratios. He delayed publishing these results, proposing to include them in a larger book, but in 1900 he came across the work of Gregor Mendel, published 34 years earlier, and announced his own findings. This stimulated both Karl Correns and Erich von Tschermak-Seysenegg to publish their essentially similar observations." (Oxford Dictionary of Scientists).

Parkinson "Breakthroughs" 1900 B. - PMM 356 (the note).

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