In Pursuit of the Gene

90 ¨ MENDEL
lower grades. The physics examiner, Baron von Baumgartner, who had
been a professor at Vienna University, was more than happy with Mendel’s
performance in the physics exam, but the natural history section was a disaster.
Mendel’s first essay, written in his characteristically lucid style, contained
an entirely scientific account of the origin of life on earth without
resort to any supernatural intervention, concluding with the observation
that “the history of creation is not finished.” 15 Whether it was the sentiments
expressed, or the fact that they were expressed by a monk, the essay
aroused the examiner’s intense displeasure, which was compounded by the
second half of the exam, in which Mendel demonstrated a nearly complete
ignorance of the classification of mammals, the examiner’s field. In the end,
he was denied accreditation as a teacher, even of elementary school.
Had he passed his exam, Mendel would have undoubtedly remained a
Gymnasium teacher, but once again Napp intervened. Based on the extremely
positive reference provided by Baumgartner, Napp arranged for
Mendel to study at a new institute for physics headed by Professor Christian
Doppler (famous for the Doppler effect) at Vienna University. At University,
Mendel was exposed for the first time to science presented by leading
research physicists, mathematicians, and biologists. Doppler died during
Mendel’s two-year stay and his place was taken by A. Ettingshausen, a
mathematician with a specialty in combinatorial analysis. 16
Not only did Mendel receive top-notch training in physics and probability
theory, but he was steeped in cell biology and cytology under the instruction
of F. Unger. In Unger’s course, Mendel also read the work of the
great German botanist Carl Friedrich von Gaertner, whose Experiments and
Observations upon Hybridisaton in the Plant Kingdom had just then appeared in German
for the first time. 17 In his book, Gaertner reported on over 10,000 experiments
on 700 species belonging to 80 different genera of plants, from
which he obtained some 350 different hybrid plants, 18 and it is clear from
Mendel’s underlining that he studied the book in great detail.
As was characteristic of the hybridists of the era, Gaertner believed in
the “inner nature” of the species, a nature that was a reflection of a Divine
purpose and therefore could not be altered in the process of hybridization.
In the same sense, the infertility of hybrids was also an expression of divine
will, preventing man from tampering with God’s creation. In his copy of