This is a history of how sheep breeding contributed to knowledge of heredity, and how the theory was vigorously pursued during the early Nineteenth Century in Brno, where Mendel defined the basis of genetics in 1866. This original and perceptive work is rich in previously unpublished detail.
Long before Mendel's ground-breaking discoveries about heredity, sheep breeders in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were transforming the appearance and qualities of their livestock by combining various traits of body and wool into new patterns. Exploiting what were then novel
procedures - individual trait selection, close inbreeding and progeny testing - they demonstrated inheritance from both sexes and showed how it could be stabilized. This remarkable book examines how sheep breeding contributed to the early knowledge of heredity and how the theory was pursued during
the early nineteenth century in Brno, where Mendel would later define the basis of genetics. Drawing from extensive records and scientific and social literature, the authors tell the fascinating story of experimental sheep breeding from a pan-European perspective, stressing its progress through
empirical discovery and the spread of Merino sheep into northern Europe and Australia. The book provides detailed coverage of the Brno Sheep Breeder's Society and its role in the development of ideas about heredity, a comprehensive review of Robert Bakewell's sheep breeding achievements, and the
impact of this work on Mendel's own education and professional research. This profound and entertaining work is destined to be a classic for historians and students of science as well as practitioners in all areas of scientific study.
... an interesting and a stimulating study. They have undertaken an impressive amount of research in the archives on sheep-breeding in Europe in the eighteenth and ninteenth centuries, and presented their findings and conclusions clearly and logically. I learnt a lot from the book.
