Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Research note: Genes on chromosomes: The conversion of Thomas Hunt Morgan

  • Published:
Journal of the History of Biology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In the first decade of the twentieth century, the foundation for the science of genetics was set. In 1900, the data of Gregor Mendel were rediscovered. By 1915, a community of scientists accepted that there were entities on chromosomes that controlled the development of observable traits. During the intervening period, Thomas Hunt Morgan was one of the major skeptics regarding the chromosomal location of the genes. His acceptance may have been the turning point for the flowering of American genetics. This paper will discuss the reasons for Morgan's recalcitrance, his conversion to belief, and the nature of the scientific evidence that led to his acceptance.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. T. H. Morgan, “Chromosomes and Heredity”, Amer. Nat., 44 (1910), 449–496.

    Google Scholar 

  2. T. H. Morgan, “Chromosomes and Heredity”, Amer. Nat., 44 (1910), p. 453.

    Google Scholar 

  3. T. H. Morgan, “Chromosomes and Heredity”, Amer. Nat., 44 (1910), p. 461.

    Google Scholar 

  4. T. H. Morgan, “Chromosomes and Heredity”, Amer. Nat., 44 (1910), p. 463.

    Google Scholar 

  5. T. H. Morgan, “Chromosomes and Heredity”, Amer. Nat., 44 (1910), p. 467.

    Google Scholar 

  6. T. H. Morgan, “Chromosomes and Heredity”, Amer. Nat., 44 (1910), p. 467.

    Google Scholar 

  7. T. H. Morgan, “Chromosomes and Heredity”, Amer. Nat., 44 (1910), p. 467.

    Google Scholar 

  8. J. Maienschein, “What Determines Sex? A Study of Converging Approaches, 1880–1916”, Isis, 75 (1984), 457–480.

    Google Scholar 

  9. L. Doncaster and G. H. Raynor, “On Breeding Experiments with Lepidoptera”, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1 (1906), 125–133; C. E. McClung, “The Accessory Chromosome - Sex Determinant?” Biol. Bull. 3 (1902), 43–84.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Morgan, “Chromosomes and Heredity”, p. 493.

  11. Ibid.

  12. W. E. Castle, “The Heredity of Sex”, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 40 (1903), 189–218.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Morgan, “Chromosomes and Heredity”, p. 495.

  14. Ibid., p. 488.

  15. T. H. Morgan, “Hybridization in a Mutating Period in Drosophila”, Proc. Soc. Exptl. Biol. Med., 7 (1910) pp. 160–161; idem, “Sex-Limited Inheritance in Drosophila”, Science, 32 (1910), 120–122.

    Google Scholar 

  16. T. H. Morgan, F. Payne, and E. N. Browne, “A Method to Test the Hypothesis of Selective Fertilization”, Biol. Bull., 18 (1910), 78.

    Google Scholar 

  17. T. H. Morgan, “The Method of Inheritance of Two Sex-Limited Characters in the Same Animal”, Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. Med., 8 (1910), 17–19.

    Google Scholar 

  18. T. H. Morgan, “The Application of the Conception of Pure Lines to Sex-Limited Inheritance and to Sexual Dimorphism”, Amer. Nat., 45 (1911), 76–77 (emphasis added).

    Google Scholar 

  19. F. A. Janssens, “Spermatogénèse dans les Batraciens: V. La théorie de la chiasmatypie: nouvelle interprétation des cinèses de maturation”, Cellule, 25 (1909), 389–406.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Garland E. Allen, Thomas Hunt Morgan: The Man and His Science (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978), p. 159.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Janssens, “Chiasmatypie”, p. 400.

  22. Ibid., p. 401 (italics in original).

  23. Morgan, “Chromosomes and Heredity”, p. 463.

  24. Janssens, “Chiasmatypie”, p. 406.

  25. H. J. Muller, “Thomas Hunt Morgan 1866–1945”, Science, 103 (1946), 550–551.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. A. H. Sturtevant, “Thomas Hunt Morgan 1866–1945”, N.A.S. Biog. Mem., 33 (1959), 294 (reprinted by Columbia University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  27. Allen, Morgan, pp. 152–153.

  28. Ibid., pp. 160–161.

  29. N. Roll-Hansen, “Drosophila Genetics: A Reductionist Research Program”, J. Hist. Biol., 11 (1978), 159–210.

    Google Scholar 

  30. S. F. Gilbert, “The Embryological Origins of the Gene Theory”, J. Hist. Biol., 11 (1978), 307–351.

    Google Scholar 

  31. J. A. Moore, “Thomas Hunt Morgan - The Geneticist”, Amer. Zool., 23 (1983), 855–865. Morgan's 1911 American Naturalist paper is not cited by Moore. Moore makes some of the same points I make, but I was not aware of his work until after the present communication had been informally presented.

    Google Scholar 

  32. Muller, “Morgan,” p. 550.

  33. T. H. Morgan, The Physical Basis of Heredity (Philadelphia and London: J. B. Lippincott, 1919), p. 112.

    Google Scholar 

  34. Morgan, “Application of Pure Lines to Sex-Limited Inheritance,” pp. 77–78.

  35. W. S. Sutton, “The Chromosomes in Heredity,” Biol. Bull., 4 (1903), 231–251.

    Google Scholar 

  36. W. S. Sutton, “The Chromosomes in Heredity,” Biol. Bull., 4 (1903), pp. 235–236.

    Google Scholar 

  37. Ibid., p. 238.

  38. W. S. Sutton, “The Chromosomes in Heredity,” Biol. Bull., 4 (1903), pp. 240–241.

    Google Scholar 

  39. T. H. Morgan, Heredity and Sex (New York: Cornell University Press, 1914), pp. v-vi.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 24061, Blacksburg, Virginia

    Muriel Lederman

Authors
  1. Muriel Lederman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Lederman, M. Research note: Genes on chromosomes: The conversion of Thomas Hunt Morgan. J Hist Biol 22, 163–176 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00209607

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00209607

Keywords

Search

Navigation