40 INHERITANCE. Chap. XIV. 



Prepotency in the Transmission of Character. 



When individuals, belonging to the same family, but 

 distinct enough to be recognised, or when two well-marked 

 races, or two species, are crossed, the usual result, as stated 

 in the previous chapter, is, that the offspring in the first 

 generation are intermediate between their parents, or resemblG 

 one parent in one part and the other parent in another part. 

 But this is by no means the invariable rule ; for in many 

 cases it is found that certain individuals, races, and species, 

 are prepotent in transmitting their likeness. This subject 

 has been ably discussed by Prosper Lucas,^ but is rendered 

 extremely complex b}^ the prepotency sometimes running 

 equally in both sexes, and sometimes more strongly in one 

 sex than in the other ; it is likewise complicated by the 

 presence of secondary sexual characters, which render the 

 comparison of crossed breeds with their parents difficult. 



It would appear that in certain families some one ancestor, 

 and after him others in the same family, have had great 

 power in transmitting their likeness through the male line ; 

 for we cannot otherwise understand how the same features 

 should so often be transmitted after marriages with many 

 females, as in the case of the Austrian Emperors ; and so it was, 

 according to Niebuhr, with the mental qualities of certain 

 Eoman families.^ The famous bull Favourite is believed * 

 to have had a prepotent influence on the short-horn race. It 

 has also been observed ^ with English race-horses that certain 

 mares have generall}'- transmitted their own character, whilst 

 other mares of equally pure blood have allowed the character 

 of the sire to prevail. A famous black greyhound, Bedlamite, 

 as I hear from Mr. C. M. Brown "invariably got all his 

 *' puppies black, no matter what was the colour of the bitch ;" 

 but then Bedlamite " had a preponderance of black in his 

 " blood, both on the sire and dam side." 



2 'Hered. Nat.,' torn. ii. pp. 112- 270. 



120. ^ Mr. N. H. Smith, ' Observations 



3 Sir H. Holland, ' Chapters on on Breeding,' quoted in ' Encyclop. of 

 Mental Physiology,' 1852, p. 234. Rural Sports,' p. 278. 



4 



' Gardener's Chronicle,' 1860, p. 



