392 



The Journal of Heredity 



disputable facts. Among horses, there 

 arc the remarkable cases of mares 

 mated first with an ass and later with a 

 stallion, which foaled twins, one a mule 

 and the other a colt, and each one, as 

 Chauveau remarks, "bearing its special 

 characteristics absolutely distinct." It 

 w\\\ at once be understood how an un- 

 known superfetation may be inter- 

 preted as telegony. And in spite of the 

 care with which they are watched, a cow, 

 a bitch or a ewe may very well be bred 

 b>- different males two or three times at 

 short intervals, without the knowledge 

 of the breeder. 



ALL EVIDENCE DUBIOUS. 



Thus, the positive observations of 

 telegony are all suspected in different 

 degrees because, generally incomplete 

 and conducted without exactitude, they 

 do not eliminate the possibility of a 

 different interpretation. And after 

 that, it is to be feared that they also 

 include a good deal of imagination. 

 For you must not forget that the same 

 breeders who carefully guard their pure- 

 bred female stock to avoid telegony 

 through interbreeding with mongrel 

 males, also carefully guard their pure- 

 bred male stock to avoid a similar 

 result from interbreeding with mongrel 

 females. They have the same fears for 

 both sexes, and legitimize them by the 

 same ])eremptory affirmations. Cousin 

 rejjorts, in this connection, the follow- 

 ing: 



"A breeder has a pure-bred Norman 

 bull and pure-bred cows of the same 

 breed; he has always had pure-bred 

 calves. The bull is mated with a 

 Jersey cow, and immediately afterward 

 to a Norman cow; the latter j^roduces 

 a Norman calf which looks like a grade 

 Jersey." 



If it is difficult to know just what may 

 have hap])ened, it is in any case certain 

 that any infection of the rrtale by the 

 female is imjjossible, unless in the form 

 of a bacteriological infection. And if 

 the calf of the second cow really j^re- 

 sented unexpected characters, not im- 



putable to her being bred a second time, 

 it is alDsolutely necessary to fall back on 

 the exjjlanation of a variation due to 

 unknown cause. But is it not enough 

 to establish the necessity of this expla- 

 nation in the present case, to make it 

 legitimate when the case concerns a 

 female fecundated by two different 

 males ? 



Along the same line, it is well to 

 remember that influence of a first im- 

 pregnation has been alleged among 

 birds, too, particularly ]iigeons and 

 domestic fowls. Brahma hens, for ex- 

 ample, fertilized by a Houdan cock, 

 are said to have laid eggs, much later, 

 when penned with Brahma cocks, which 

 produced chickens resembling in certain 

 respects the Houdan. But it is certainly 

 difficult to see how such an impregnation 

 could take place in oviparous females. 



Should we henceforth reject telegony 

 without further formality, merely be- 

 cause of the inadequacy of the proofs 

 alleged!" Evidently not. Precise obser- 

 vations and experiments are necessary, 

 above everything else. Neither the 

 one nor the other is scarce at present; 

 the oldest date from 1872, due partly to 

 Settegast and partly to Nathusius. 



The former records the case of four 

 mares bred first to asses and then to 

 stallions; not one of the colts showed 

 the slightest resemblance to a mule ; nor 

 did their posterity show such resemblance, 

 either. 



Nathusius cites, among other illus- 

 trations, the following: An Ayrshire 

 cow had, by a hornless bull, a hornless 

 calf; all her later calves, gotten by 

 homed bulls, bore horns. 



cossar-ewart's work. 



More recently, J.Cossar-Ewart under- 

 took an extensive investigation of I lie 

 subject, which lasted from 1896 to 1901. 

 It comprised 13 mares, four of which 

 were used for control cx])eriments while 

 the other nine were successively bred 

 first to a zebra and then to a stallion, or 

 \'ice versa. The results are summed up 

 in Table I. 



