Mendelism in the Seventeenth Century

Abstract

THE Mendelian revival of breeding has brought to light many interesting facts concerning the inheritance of coat-colour in rabbits. From the work of Hurst, Castle, Punnett, and others, it is now known that when the wild “grey” or “agouti” rabbit is mated with white, black, or “blue” specimens, the offspring produced all display the colour of their wild parent. Although this is doubtless well known at the present day, it is, I believe, not generally known that these facts had been ascertained by rabbit-fanciers in Holland in the seventeenth century, and were put on record by the illustrious Leeuwenhoek in 1683.