FIRST IMPREGNATION. 85 



sion. Among turtles, I have satisfied myself, that no young is 

 born from any turtle, until the female, during four successive 

 years, has been fecundated eight times ; and it is the eighth 

 fecundation or eighth copulation which secures the first laying 

 of an egg. A turtle, our little fresh-water turtle, is generally 

 seven years old before it copulates for the first time, and it is in 

 the eleventh yeai' that they lay, generally, their first egg ; and 

 during that time, they have copulated twice a year, and each 

 copulation has produced a marked change in the egg. The eggs 

 differ so much in the ovary of the turtle, that you can trace the 

 effect of these successive copulations, year after year. I know 

 perfectly well, when examining a turtle, which of her eggs will 

 be laid this year, which nest year, and which the third year ; 

 it is as easy as possible. If you open the first female turtle you 

 see in the spring, you will find that there are from five to seven 

 large eggs, about the size of a bullet, that there are a certain 

 number about the size of a pea, five, six or seven that arc as 

 large as a good-sized pin's head, and the rest so small that the 

 eye can hardly distinguish them. There you have marked out 

 the successive eggs which are going to be laid. These eggs 

 show in their situation, the difference, and it is plain from that, 

 that it takes these successive years, each year accompanied by 

 fecundation, before any egg is laid. Now, there are animals 

 which arc at once fecundated, in which the egg, or a certain 

 number of eggs, are at once brought to development and laid ; 

 but that does not shut out this additional fact, that the other 

 eggs, which are not then ripe for development, are influenced ; 

 they are influenced in a marked degree. Here come in the par- 

 ticular facts which are familiar to you all, but some of which I 

 have obtained from direct experiment. Suppose a bitch covered 

 by a bull dog — part of the offspring will be like her, and part 

 like the father. Suppose the next litter is derived from a grey- 

 hound ; that second litter, where no bull dog had any part in 

 the fecundation, will contain bull dogs, and always in a certain 

 proportion ; showing that the first impregnation of that bitch by 

 the bull dog, produced an effect to be seen in the second gener- 

 ation, when the male parent of that second litter was an animal 

 of a totally different character. You see, therefore, how impor- 

 tant it must be, if these facts obtain throughout the Avholc 

 animal kingdom, that the male used in the first copulation of an 



