Themes of Biological Inheritance in Early Nineteenth Century Sheep Breeding as Revealed by J. M. Ehrenfels

2022/07/23 by Péter Poczai, Jorge A. Santiago‐Blay · 1 citation
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Botanical Studies and Applications #Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies #Historical Geopolitical and Social Dynamics

paper · pdf · doi:10.3390/genes13081311

openalex publication_date 2022/07/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30

Abstract

Among the so-called sheep breeders interested in biological inheritance in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and well before Gregor Johann Mendel, J. M. Ehrenfels (1767-1843) produced some of the most cogent writings on the subject. Although earlier in his career Ehrenfels was a strong advocate of environmental factors as influencers on the appearance of organisms, as a result of his discussions with Imre Festetics, he became convinced that whatever is passed from parents to progeny is more important and it is dependent on a "genetic force, the mother of all living things". The sheep breeders kept issues of inheritance at the forefront of the Central European cultural context late into the nineteenth century.

Citations

• Imre Festetics and the Sheep Breeders' Society of Moravia: Mendel's Forgotten “Research Network”
• The Lesser-Known Mendel: His Experiments on Hieracium
• The emergence of genetics from Festetics’ sheep through Mendel’s peas to Bateson’s chickens
• Mimush Sheep and the Spectre of Inbreeding: Historical Background for Festetics’s Organic and Genetic Laws Four Decades Before Mendel’s Experiments in Peas
• Principles and biological concepts of heredity before Mendel
• Chip Off the Old Block: Generation, Development, and Ancestral Concepts of Heredity

Cited by

• Genetics [wikipedia]