Medical Dictionary

In fact, Mendel was a trained scientist-he had studied physics and mathematics at the Olmцјtz Philosophical Institute and the University of Vienna-and he brought scientific discipline to all he did. Moreover, the monastery at Brno where he lived from 1843 was known as a learned institution. It had a library of twenty thousand books and a tradition of careful scientific investigation. Before embarking on his experiments, Mendel spent two years preparing his control specimens, seven varieties of pea, to make sure they bred true. Then, helped by two full-time assistants, he repeatedly bred and crossbred hybrids from thirty thousand pea plants. It was delicate work, requiring them to take the most exacting pains to avoid accidental cross-fertilization and to note every slight variation in the growth and appearance of seeds, pods, leaves, stems, and flowers. Mendel knew what he was doing. He never used the word gene-it wasnБЂ™t coined until 1913, in an English medical dictionary-though he did invent the terms dominant and recessive ...»