till On the comparative Ififlumce, ^c* 



which he has not possessed ; and my conclusions have been 

 drawn from very extensive, and, I believe, accurate obser- 

 vation. 



There is another respect in which the powers of the fe- 

 male appear to be prevalent in their influence on the off- 

 spring, and that is relative to its sex. In several species of 

 domesticated, or cultivated animal (I believe in all), parti- 

 cular females are found to produce a very large majority, 

 and sometimes all their offspring, of the same sex; and I 

 have proved repeatedly, that, by dividing a herd of thirty 

 cows into three equal parts, I could calculate, with confi- 

 dence, upon a large majority of females from one part, of 

 males from another, and upon nearly an equal number of 

 males and females from the remainder. 1 frequently en- 

 deavoured to change these habits by changing the male 5 

 but always without success ; and I have in some instances 

 observed the offspring of one sex, though obtained from 

 different males, to exceed those of the other, in the propor- 

 tion of five or six, and even seven to one. When, on the 

 contrary, I have attended to the numerous offspring of a 

 single bull, or ram, or horse, I have never seen any consi- 

 derable difference in the number of offspring of either sex, 

 I am therefore disposed to believe that the sex of the off- 

 feprin^ is given by the female parent ; and the probability 

 of this seems obvious in fishes, and several other species of 

 animals which breed in water ; and though the evidence 

 afforded by the facts adduced is not by any means gf 

 suflficient weight to decide the question, it probably much 

 exceeds all that can be placed in the opposite scale. 



In oviparous animals, I have had reason to think the in- 

 fluence of the female parent quite as great as amongst the 

 viviparous tribes, though my observations have been more 

 limited, and less conclusive. In viviparous animals, the 

 size of the foetus is affected by the influence of the male 

 parent, and, in some instances, not inconsiderably; but 

 the size and form of the eggs of birds do not appear to be 

 in any degree changed or modified by the influence of the 

 male; and therefore the size of the offspring, at the birth, 

 must be regulated wholly by the female parent ; and this 

 circumstance permanently affects the form and character 

 of the offspring! The eggs of birds, and those of fishes 

 and insects (if such can properly be called eggs), appear to 

 resemble the seeds of plants, in having* their forms and bulk 

 wholly regulated by the female parent ; but nevertheless 

 their formation appears to depend on very different laws. 

 For the eggs, both of birds and of fishes and insects, attain 



their 



