1S68.] 417 [Hayes. 



lonp: entirely to one of the two."* He observes that it follows from 

 the>e principles that notliing could be more irrational than to take 

 animals of the half bloorl as i'eo;enei'ators to ameliorate a race; for not 

 possessing comj^letely the qualities which, we seek, and having pre- 

 served a part of the bad which we wish to shun, they transmit a 

 mixture of one, and besides, as they are necessarily of a formation 

 more recent than the race to be regenerated, it will be the last one 

 which will impress itself, if not upon the first, at least upon successive 

 generations. These views are confirmed by the njcent observations of 

 Professor Agassiz, in Brazil, on the effects of crosses of races of men 

 He observes that the principal result at which he has arrived from 

 the study of the mixture of human races in the region of Brazil is 

 that "races bear themselves towards each other as all distinct species; 

 that is to say, that the hybrids which spi'ing from the crossing of men 

 of different races are always a mixture of the two primitive types 

 and never the simple reproduction of the characters of one or the 

 other progenitor. It is also remarked by the same high authority, that, 

 '•however naturalists may differ respecting the origin of species, there 

 is at least one point in which they agree, nameh', that the offspring 

 from two so-called different species is a being intermediate between 

 them, showing the peculiar features of both parents, but resembling 

 neither so closely as to be mistaken for a jiure representative of the 

 one or other, "f 



The views of the eminent physiologists above quoted give no sup- 

 port to the popular fallacy into which Dr. Bachman and Mr. Diehl 

 seem to have fallen, that the male animal possesses the greater power 

 of transmitting blood to his progeny. Dr. Randall in the chapter 

 upon the principles of breeding in his "Practical Shepherd" while 

 admitting that the ram much oftenest gives the leading characteristics 

 of form, attributes the greater power of the ram to the superiority of 

 blood and superiority of individual vigor, as the ram is generally 

 '•higher bred" than the ewes, even in full blood flocks.;]: 



If it be true as a physiological principle that the parents in widely 

 separated races tend ecpially to transmit all their qualities, what hope 

 is there of obtaining a valuable lanigerous animal from the crosses 

 of goats so wiilcly separated as to belong to different species; espe- 

 cially when the heavy coating of one is absolutely worthless, and noth- 

 ing short of the peculiar qualities found in the other is worth seeking 

 for? All analogy teaches that it is vain to. expect to form a perma- 

 nent race of any value from the crosses of such wideh' separated 



* Amelioration de resp6c6 chevaline, Bull. supr. cit., T. viii, 1861, p. 257. 

 t A Journ?3' in Brazil, by Professor and Mrs. L. Agassiz. pp. 29G and 338. 

 t pp.110. 111. 



PEOCEKDIXGS B. S. N. H. — VOL. XI. 27 MAY, 1868. 



