Gayon J, Burian R M
Laboratoire Rehseis (Recherches épistémologiques et historiques sur les sciences exactes et les institutions scientifiques), université Paris-7-Denis Diderot, CC 7001, 2, place Jussieu, 75005 Paris, France.
C R Acad Sci III. 2000 Dec;323(12):1097-106. doi: 10.1016/s0764-4469(00)01251-8.
This paper describes and explains the reception of Mendelism among French biologists at the beginning of the 20th Century. Three dimensions of description must be taken into account: scholarly diffusion; transmission of the new science through teaching and textbooks; and effective research. These three axes of description do not provide the same picture: Mendelian research was widely reported among specialists; no significant teaching of Mendelism took place in the years 1900-1930; by 1930 only one biologist, Lucien Cuénot, had carried out significant genetic research, but he abandoned his Mendelian research in 1914. The resistance to Mendelism can be attributed to four categories of factors, none of which is sufficient. The first category includes a series of intellectual factors: a massively positivist conception of science, an approach to heredity that privileged a 'physiological' theory, and a poor development of cytology. The second set of factors stems from the failure of French academic biologists to establish a strong interaction with plant and animal breeding. The third factor is the relatively weak influence of the eugenic ideology in France. Finally, the particular organization of French universities, together with the deaths of numerous young scientists during World War I, amplified the effects of the previous factors.
本文描述并解释了20世纪初法国生物学家对孟德尔主义的接受情况。必须考虑描述的三个维度：学术传播；通过教学和教科书对新科学的传授；以及实际研究。这三个描述维度呈现出不同的情况：孟德尔式研究在专家中得到广泛报道；1900年至1930年间孟德尔主义并未得到显著的教学传授；到1930年，只有一位生物学家吕西安·居诺进行了重要的遗传学研究，但他在1914年放弃了孟德尔式研究。对孟德尔主义的抵制可归因于四类因素，其中没有一个因素是充分的。第一类包括一系列知识因素：科学的实证主义观念盛行、对遗传的研究倾向于一种“生理学”理论，以及细胞学发展薄弱。第二类因素源于法国学术生物学家未能与动植物育种建立强有力的互动。第三个因素是优生学思想在法国的影响相对较弱。最后，法国大学的特殊组织形式，再加上第一次世界大战期间众多年轻科学家的死亡，放大了前几个因素的影响。
