Abstract
DR. JABOSLAV K??ŽENECK?, of the Zootechnical Research Institute and College of Agriculture in Brno, Czechoslovakia, has informed Dr. Herbert C. Hanson, chief of the Agricultural Division, United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration Mission to Czechoslovakia, that Mendel's manuscript “Versuche iiber Pflanzen Hybriden” has disappeared. This manuscript had been in the custody of the Natural History Society in Brno since* 1910, when it was found by Prof. Hugo Iltis in a waste-paper basket in the Society's library. In 1939, when the Germans occupied Brno, Dr. Otto Richter, professor of botany in the German Technical College in Brno, took over the chair of plant physiology in the Faculty of Science in the Masaryk University. All the buildings and facilities of this University were turned over to the German College. Some of the Czech assistants were persuaded to remain under Richter. They have informed Dr. KHženeck that Prof. Richter, after he had taken over the apartments of the Natural History Society, carried Mendel's manuscript about with him in his brief-case. Richter was also a student of Mendel's history and wrote several publications about Mendel during the War. When the Germans were evacuating Brno upon the approach of the Russians, Richter disappeared. It is thought that he may have taken Mendel's manuscript with him either to Germany or Vienna. So far, the whereabouts of Prof. Richter and of the manuscript are unknown. It is to be hoped that further official aid will be given in searching for this interesting document, which should be returned to Brno.
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Disappearance of a Mendel Manuscript. Nature 159, 22 (1947). https://doi.org/10.1038/159022b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/159022b0