92 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



states as the results of his observation, that the offspring of an old 

 male and a young female resembles the father less than the mother 

 in proportion as the mother is more vigorous and the father more 

 deci-epit, and that the reverse occurs with the offspring of an old 

 female and a young male. 



Among the more recent theories or hypotheses which have been 

 started regarding the relative influence of the male and female 

 parents, those of Mr. Orton, presented in a paper read before the 

 Farmers' Club at Newcastle upon Tyne, on the Physiology of 

 Breeding, and of the late Mr. Walker in his work on Intermarriage, 

 as they both arrived (so far, at least, as regards crossing differ- 

 ent breeds) at substantially the same conclusions by independent 

 observations of their own, and as these seem to agree most nearly 

 with the majority of observed facts, are deemed worthy of favora- 

 ble mention. 



The conclusions of Mr. Orton, briefly stated,* are, that in the 

 progeny there is no casual or haphazard blending of the parts or 

 qualities of the two parents, but rather that organization is trans- 

 mitted by halves, or that each parent contributes to the formation 

 of certain structures, and to the development of certain qualities. 

 Advancing a step further, he maintains, that the male parent chiefly 

 determines the external characters, the general appearance, in fact, 

 the outward structure and locomotive powers of the offspring, as 

 the framework, or bones and muscles, more particularly those of the 

 limbs, the organs of sense and skin ; while the female parent chiefly 

 determines the internal structures and the general quality, mainly 

 furnishing the vital organs, i. e., the heart, lungs, glands and di- 

 gestive organs, and giving tone and character to the vital functions 

 of secretion, nutrition and growth. "Not however tliat the male 

 is without influence on the internal organs and vital functions, or 

 the female without influence on the external organs and locomotive 

 powers of their offspring. The law holds only within certain re- 

 strictions, and these form as it were a secondary law, one of limita- 

 tions, and scarcely less important to be understood than the funda- 

 mental law itself" 



Mr. Orton relies chiefly on the evidence presented by hybrids, the 

 progeny of distinct species, or by crosses between the most dis- 

 tinct varieties embraced within a single species, to establish his 



♦Quoted, in part, from a paper by Alex. Harvey, M. D., read before the Medical 

 Society of Southampton, June Oth, 1854. 



