2/2 



E. H. HARPER. 



militate against Gallon's or Pearson's law which ascribes a con- 

 tinued influence to the remote ancestry. The influence of the 

 ancestral generations diminishes according to Gallon's hypothesis 

 in the series .50, .25, .125, .0625, etc. According to Pear- 

 son's, a greater influence is ascribed to the remote generations, 

 the series (numbered II.) running as follows .50 (parental 

 influence;, .33 (grandparental influence), .22 (great-grandparental 

 influence), .15 (great-great-grandparental influence). 



II. Is THERE A CORRELATION BETWEEN AGE AND PREPOTENCY ? 



The remaining question proposed in this paper is whether there 

 exists any relation between age of parents and prepotency. 

 Whether there is an optimum age of prepotency in either parent 

 and the power of influencing the character of the offspring 

 increases up to this point. 



The data have been first arranged in two groups for the two 

 sexes. The 1,000 colts are treated in Table VI. (a) and the 

 1,000 fillies in Table VI. (/;). 



TABLE VI. (//). 

 FILLIES. 



Table VI. (a] shows that dams are slightly more prepotent 

 when older, or in 55.3 per cent, of the cases against 53.5 per 

 cent, where the sire was older or of the same age. 



In the table of the fillies VI. (/;) the dam is seen to be prepotent 

 in 56 per cent, of the cases when older, as against 52 per cent, 

 when younger or of the same age with the sire. These differ- 



