SECRETARY'S REPORT. 77 



fleeces ; and in 1833 there were rams enough of the new sort to 

 serve the whole flock of ewes. In each subsequent year the lambs 

 were of two kinds ; one possessing the curled elastic wool of the 

 old Merinos, only a little larger and finer ; the other like the new 

 breed. At last, the skillful breeder obtained a flock combining the 

 fine silky fleece with a smaller head, broader flanks, and more 

 capacious chest ; and several flocks being crossed with the Mau- 

 champ variety, have produced also the Mauchamp-Merino breed. 

 The pure Mauchamp wool is remarkable for its qualities as comb- 

 ing-wool, owing to the strength, as well as the length and fineness 

 of the fibre. It is found of great value by the manufacturers of 

 Cashmere shawls and similar goods, being second only to the true 

 Cashmere fleece, in the fine flexible delicacy of the fibre ; and when 

 in combination with Cashmere wool, imparting strength and con- 

 sistency. The quantity of the wool has now become as great or 

 greater than from ordinary Merinos, while the quality commands 

 for it twenty-five per cent, higher price in the French market. 

 Surely breeders cannot watch too closely any accidental peculiarity 

 of conformation or characteristic in their flocks or herds." 



Mons. Vjlmorin, the eminent horticulturist of Paris, has likened 

 the law of similarity to the centripetal force, and the law of varia- 

 tion to the centrifugal force ; and in truth their operations seem 

 analogous, and possibly they may be the same in kind, though 

 certainly unlike in this, that they are not reducible to arithmetical 

 calculation and cannot be subjected to definite measurement. His 

 thought is at least a highly suggestive one and may be pursued 

 with profit. 



Among the "faint rays" alluded to by Mr. Darwin as throwing 

 light upon the changes dependent on the laws of reproduction, 

 there is one, perhaps the brightest yet seen, which deserves our 

 notice. It is the apparent influence of the male first having fruitful 

 intercourse with a female upon her subsequent offspring by other 

 males. Attention was first directed to this by the following cir- 

 cumstance, related by Sir Everard Home : A young chestnut mare, 

 seven-eighths Arabian, belonging to the Earl of Morton, was covered 

 in 1815 by a Quagga, which is a species of wild ass from Africa, 

 and marked somewhat in the style of a Zebra. The mare was cov- 

 ered but once by the Quagga, and after a pregnancy of eleven 

 months and four days gave birth to a hybrid, which had, as was 

 expected, distinct marks of the Quagga, in the shape of its head, 

 black bars on the legs and shoulders, &c. In 1817, 1818 and 



