In Pursuit of the Gene

142 ¨ MENDEL WARS
In February, Weldon retreated again to Italy, this time to Rome. Though
he felt he needed a holiday, he wrote Pearson that he had felt compelled to
bring along the volumes of the studbook. “To sit here eight hours a day or
so, doing mere clerk’s work, seems rather waste of life?” he wrote Pearson
from his hotel room, wishing he could partake in the pleasures of Rome.
From February to April he examined hundreds of pedigrees, and his letters
were filled only with crosses. 70 Over Easter the Pearsons and Weldons met
for a joint vacation in Woolstone about twenty miles from Oxford, and
Weldon was still hard at work on the studbook. On Sunday, April 8, Weldon
biked into Oxford to develop photographs, and complained of being tired
after the trip, which was extremely unusual for him. On Monday he took a
long walk over the Downs and returned home late. He got up for breakfast
on Tuesday but returned to bed afterward. Pearson visited that afternoon,
and Weldon insisted on smoking while he questioned Pearson on the solution
to a new problem he was working on. The next day Weldon’s wife
begged him to stay in bed, but he refused and instead went to town to visit
an art gallery. On Thursday he had a dentist appointment from which he
was taken first to a doctor and then to a hospital. He died of pneumonia
the following day, Good Friday, April 13. It was shocking news to everyone
that the most vigorous of men had been cut down in his prime. For
Pearson it was a devastating loss, of his dearest friend and his partner in the
founding of a new school of biology. The immensity of the loss he felt is evident
throughout the fifty-page obituary he wrote immediately following
Weldon’s death.
In early May, Hurst sent Pearson a reprint of the horse coat-color paper,
which had appeared in print on the day of Weldon’s death, along with
a brief note of condolence. Although Hurst had been moved by true regret,
Pearson refused to accept his condolences. In Pearson’s imagination,
Weldon was a soldier who had died in battle, and Pearson was not prepared
to take succor from the enemy. “Only a few days before his death he condemned
in stronger language than I have ever heard him use of any individual
the tone and contents of the Note added to your paper,” Pearson
lashed out. “It is a judgment of which I believe everyman who has the interests
of science at heart will concur.” 71 Although it was true that Hurst