SECRETARY'S REPORT. 97 



horse ; not only does the head of the offspring resemble the dam 

 but the forelegs likewise, and thus it is fortunately the case that 

 the too-frequently faulty and tottering legs of the sire are not 

 reproduced in the foal, whilst the full thighs and hind quarters 

 which belong to the blood-horse are generally given to the off- 

 spring. There is however a minority of cases in which the oppo- 

 site result obtains. That size is governed more by the male parent 

 there is no great difficulty in showing ; familiar examples may be 

 found in the pony-mare and the full sized horse, which considera- 

 bly exceed the dam in size. Again, in the first cross between the 

 small indigenous ewe and the large ram of another improved 

 breed — the offspring is found to approach in size and shape very 

 much to the ram. The mule offspring of the mare also much re- 

 sembles both in size and appearance its donkey sire. These are 

 familiar examples of the jDreponderating influence of the male 

 parent, so far as the external form is considered. To show how- 

 ever that size and hight do not invariably follow the male, we need 

 go no further for illustration than the human subject. How often 

 do we find that in the by no means unfrequent case of the union 

 of a tall man with a short woman, the result in some instances, is 

 that all the children are tall and in others all short ; or sometimes 

 that some are short and others tall. Within our own knowledge 

 in one case, where the father was tall and the mother short, the 

 children, six in number, are all tall. In another instance, the 

 father being short and the mother tall, the children, seven in num- 

 ber, are all of lofty stature. In a third instance, the mother being 

 tall and the father short, the greater portion of the family are short. 

 Such facts as these are sufficient to prove that hight or growth 

 does not exclusively follow either the one parent or the other. 

 Although this is the case, it is also a striking fact that the union 

 of tall and short parents rarely, if ever, produces offspring of a 

 medium size — midway, as it were, between the two parents. 



Thus, in the breeding of animals, if the object be to modify cer- 

 tain defects by using a male or female in which such defects may 

 not exist, we cannot produce this desired alteration ; or rather it 

 cannot be equally produced in all the offspring, but can only be 

 attained by weeding out those in whom the objectionable points 

 are repeated. We are, however, of opinion that in the majority of 

 instances, the hight in the human subject, and the size and contour 

 in animals, is influenced much more by the male than the female 

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