' ' 



CHAPTER V. 



EVOLUTION. 

 (18/0-82). 



To J. Jenner Weir. 1 Letter 235 



Down. March iyth [1870]. 



It is my decided opinion that you ought to send an 

 account to some scientific society, and I think to the Royal 

 Society. 2 I would communicate it if you so decide. You 



1 Mr. John Jenner Weir (1822-94) came of a family of Scotch descent ; 

 in 1839 he entered the service of the Custom House, and during the final 

 eleven years of his service, i.e. from 1874 to 1885, held the position of 

 Accountant and Controller-General. He was a born naturalist, and his 

 " aptitude for exact observation was of the highest order " (Mr. M'Lachlan 

 in the Entomologist 's Monthly Magazine, May 1894). He is chiefly known 

 as an entomologist, but he had also extensive knowledge of Ornithology, 

 Horticulture, and of the breeds of various domestic animals and cage- 

 birds. His personal qualities made him many friends, and he was 

 especially kind to beginners in the numerous subjects on which he was 

 an authority {Science Gossip, May 1894). 



2 Mr. Jenner Weir's case is given in Animals and Plants, Ed. II., 

 Vol. I., p. 435, and does not appear to have been published elsewhere. 

 The facts are briefly that a horse, the offspring of a mare of Lord 

 Mostyn's, which had previously borne a foal by a quagga, showed a 

 number of quagga-like characters, such as stripes, low-growing mane, and 

 elongated hoofs. The passage in Animals and Plants, to which he directs 

 Mr. Weir's attention in reference to Carpenter's objection, is in Ed. I., 

 Vol. I., p. 405 : " It is a most improbable hypothesis that the mere blood 

 of one individual should affect the reproductive organs of another indi- 

 vidual in such a manner as to modify the subsequent offspring. The 

 analogy from the direct action of foreign pollen on the ovarium and 

 seed-coats of the mother plant strongly supports the belief that the male 

 element acts directly on the reproductive organs of the female, wonderful 

 as is this action, and not through the intervention of the crossed embryo." 

 For references to Mr. Galton's experiments on transfusion of blood, see 

 Letter 273. 



319 



