KIMMELMAN, BARBARA. School of General Studies, Philadelphia University (formerly Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science), Schoolhouse Lane and Henry Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19144. - "Playing Catch-Up? An Institutional Interpretation of Mendel's Two Receptions, 1865-1900".
Given that the fate of most scholarly productions at most times is to
be ignored, a greater problem than Mendel's original
"neglect" is why his work was ever resurrected. A classic
explanation is that Mendel was "ahead of his time," and that
during the next thirty-five years the scientific world "caught
up" with him. This explanation has invoked chiefly the
intellectual aspects of science; historians have pointed to the
discoveries in cytology, development, and evolution that enabled
scientists in 1900 to conceptually process Mendel's work. Having
scrutinized the circumstances surrounding the rediscovery, I offer an
alternative institutional version of the game of "catch-up."
Mendel's recent biographers have stressed his rather unique training
and background, which combined physics, evolution, and intracellural
plant physiology with experience in agricultural breeding. Between
1865 and 1900, the number of both educational and research
institutions dedicated to scientific agriculture dramatically
expanded, in Europe and even more so in the United States. This
produced a swelling profession of scientifically educated agricultural
breeders, with a constellation of preparation and interests more
similar to Mendel's than were those of his contemporaries who enjoyed
state support and permanent academic structures available to support
their work. I argue that it is the growth of such scientific
agricultural institutions that accounts both for the rediscovery of
Mendel's work and for its largely positive reception in 1900.
Key words: agriculture, institutions, Mendel, reception of