Imre Festetics

Count Imre Festetics de Tolna (17641847) was a landowner and geneticist.
Scientific works.
Imre Festetics studued the breeding of sheep. He published some rules of heredity, and was the first to refer to these as "genetic laws of nature" ("Die genetischen Gesatze der Natur"). In so doing he used the term "genetic" for the first time, 80 years before William Bateson did. 
Genetic Laws of Nature.
Festetics was hindered by the complex nature of his study traits, which were aspects of wool quality. We now know this is polygenic, that is, controlled by many genes. It does not not give clear-cut "Mendelian" ratios. When Gregor Mendel turned his attention to inheritance many of the principles had already been sketched out by Festetics.