Vig Károly: Zoological Research in Western Hungary. A history (Szombathely, 2003)

Historical survey 31 stone, corals, and petrified animal and fish remains' owned by OCSKAY and by a collector named PÜRTZEL.

104 There were many other collectors of items of natural history, apart from those just mentioned. The Evangelical pastor JÓZSEF TORKOS collected shells and had a 'snail garden'. His son SÁMUEL expanded his father's collection and donated it to the Lyceum. FERENC GALLUS started an insect collection about 1840, while the ironmonger SÁMUEL FABRY diligently collected remains of marine molluscs from Sopron and Fertőrákos quarries. KÁROLY RUMY had a considerable mineral collection,

105 while the pastor and schoolteacher SÁMUEL BREDECZKY went in for fossils.

106 Modern scientific activity in Kőszeg was dominated by the male members of the CHERNÉL and FESTETICS families. The work of ISTVÁN CHERNÉL and IMRE FESTETICS had significance far beyond the bounds of the county or even the country. IMRE FESTETICS (1764-1847) (Figure 2.12), younger brother of the GYÖRGY FESTETICS who founded the Georgikon agricultural college at Keszthely, came up with an epoch-making scientific advance: the first outline of laws for the inheritance of characteristics from one generation to the next. His paper was published in the April 1819 number of the respected Oekonomische Neuigkeiten und Verhandlungen Figure 2.12. IMRE FESTETICS (1764-1847), a scholar-count responsible for one of the epoch-making hypotheses in European science. In 1819, he became the first to expound clearly the empirical facts behind what he saw as the 'genetic laws of nature' in Brünn (Brno) (Figure 2.13).

107 FESTETICS, in the 61st contribution to a debate on sheep-breeding held three years before GREGOR MENDEL was born, formulated empirical facts that amounted to 'genetic laws of nature' (genetische Gesetze der Natur)

—almost certainly the first use of the expression in the universal history of genetics and undoubtedly the first in the history of Hungarian genetics.

108 As a paper in the Journal of Heredity put it in 104 LÁSZLÓ, E. 1963. Újabb adalék a soproni természetrajzi gyűjtés történetéhez (Further notes on the history of natural-history collection in Sopron). Soproni Szemle 17:81. The author cites an 1847 account of the exhibition by F. EÖTTEVÉNYI in a Győr newspaper (Hazánk, No. 101). 105 Pj. 1962. Adalékok a soproni természetrajzi gyűjtés történetéhez (Notes on the history of natural-history collection in Sopron). Soproni Szemle 16:284. 106 HORVÁTH, Ö. 1924. Bredeczky Sámuel élete (Life of SB). Budapest; LEITNER, J. 1938. Bredeczky Sámuel (1772-1812). Soproni Szemle 2:66-73. 107 FESTETICS, I. 1819. 61. Debatten, Schafzucht. Weitere Erklärungen des Herren Grafen Emmerich Festetics über Inzucht. Oekonomische Neuigkeiten und Verhandlungen 22:169-71. 108 SZABÓ, TA 1999. Elektronikus olvasónapló: Festetics Imre (1764-1847). A „természet genetikai törvényei"-től a klónozásig (Electronic reading diary: IM [1764-1847]. From the 'genetic laws of nature' to cloning). Természet Világa (Természettudományi Közlöny) 130:130-31.