238 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 15 



spring', even from pure shorthorn, are like- 

 ly to show the Jersey taint. 



That there was some such theory in the 

 minds of people as early as Jacob's time is 

 possibly true. The theory has been reg-ard- 

 ed bj' many of our scientists as a correct 

 one, back even to 1820, when Lord Morton 

 wrote to Dr. W. H. Woolston, President of 

 the Royal Society of Great Britain, the re- 

 sults of his famous experiments. These ex- 

 periments were substantially as follows: 



A nearly pure Arabian mare was cou- 

 pled with a quag-ga. The resulting off- 

 spring v^^as a female hybrid quite interme- 

 diate in character between the sire and the 

 dam. The mare was afterward bred to a 

 pure Arabian horse. The resulting filly, 

 in the words of Lord Morton, and also a 

 colt a year younger, were fine specimens of 

 the Arabian breed, as fine as could be ex- 

 pected when only fifteen-sixteenths Arabi- 

 an; but in the color and the hair of their 

 manes they bore striking resemblance to the 

 quagga. The stripes seemed quite conclu- 

 sive, but the evidence from the main and 

 tail was less so. This testimony from Lord 

 Morton has been regarded as conclusive by 

 many scientific men. Darwin, in referring 

 to this case, says, " There can be no doubt 

 that the quagga affected the character of 

 the offspring subsequently got by the Ara- 

 bian horse. ' It is significant, however, 

 that Darwin wrote afterward that telegony 

 occurred rarelj^; for he stated, some years 

 before his death, that it was " a very occa- 

 sional phenomenon." Agassiz believed in 

 telegony. He was fully persuaded, to use 

 his own words, "that the act of fecunda- 

 tion is not an act which is limited in its ef- 

 fects, but that it is an act that affects the 

 whole S3^stem, the sexual system especially, 

 and in the sexual system the ovary to be 

 impregnated hereafter is so modified by the 

 first act that later impregnations do not ef- 

 face the first impressions." Romanes also 

 believed that telegony was of occasional oc- 

 currence. His researches were quite ex- 

 tensive. He sums up his conclusions in the 

 following words: "The phenomenon is of 

 much less frequent occurrence than is gen- 

 erally supposed. I doubt if it occurs in 

 more than one or two cases in a hundred." 

 Herber Spencer believed in telegony. He 

 not only has a theory to explain it, but also 

 makes it the basis of an extended argument 

 which he used in his controversy with 

 Weismann. The latter, who gave us the 

 term "telegony," writes as follows in the 

 Contemporary Review: 



" I must say that, to this da3% and in 

 spite of the additional cases brought for- 

 ward by Spencer and Romanes, I do not 

 consider that telegony has been proved. I 

 should accept a case like that of Lord Mor- 

 ton's mare as satisfactory evidence if it 

 were quite certainly beyond a doubt. But 

 this is by no means the case, as Settegast 

 has abundantly proved." 



Settegast explained the case in question 

 as an instance of "reversion." He says, 

 "Cases are not rare where colts are born 



with stripes which recall the marking of a 

 quagga or zebra." Many German lareed- 

 ers hold with Weismann that telegony is 

 yet unproved. 



The late Sir Everett Millais, an eminent 

 breeder of dogs in England, was also a 

 doubter. He says: 



"I may further adduce the fact that, in 

 a breeding experience of nearly thirtj' years' 

 standing, during which I made all sorts of 

 experiments with pure-blood dams and wild- 

 blood sires, and returned them afterward 

 to pure sires of their own breed, I have 

 never seen a case of telegony, nor has my 

 breeding stock suffered. I maj' further ad- 

 duce the fact that I have made over fifty 

 experiments for Prof. Romanes, to induce a 

 case of telegony in a variety of animals — 

 dogs, ducks, hens, pigeons, etc., but I have 

 hopelessly failed, as has every experiment- 

 er who has tried to produce the phenome- 

 non." 



Very recently Prof. Ewart used Matopo, 

 a beautiful zebra stallion. He has secured 

 eleven zebra hybrids, from mares of various 

 breeds and sizes. Some of these hybrids 

 were even more marked with stripes than 

 the sire. The mares were afterward bred 

 to horses. The progeny were for the most 

 part verj^ much like ordinary foals. There 

 were, however, stripes, which in some 

 cases were quite evident in certain lights, 

 but even these in many cases disappeared 

 later. It is interesting to note, however, 

 that these faint stripes were unlike those 

 of the sire or even the hybrids. Foals of 

 ordinary breeding very often show similar 

 stripes. Many of the colts show no stripes 

 at all, nor any indication of taint. Prof. 

 Ewart has also experimented with pigeons, 

 fowls, ducks, and dogs. There were many 

 cases of rabbits, and in every case the moth- 

 er which had been impurely mated subse- 

 quently bred true upon being purely mated. 

 Prof. Ewart does not claim to have proved 

 any thing. He is certain that it does not 

 always occur, and believes with German 

 breeders that, if it occurs at all, it is sel- 

 dom. We quote from him: " The experi- 

 ments, as far as they have gone, afford no 

 evidence in support of the telegony hypoth- 

 esis. ' ' He believes that the stripes are easi- 

 ly explained by atavism or reversion. Cer- 

 tainly we owe a great debt of gratitude to 

 this Edinburgh professor. Very recently 

 Prof. Ewart gave the results of further ex- 

 periments to the same purpose. 



The late Dr. Manly Miles, in his " Prin- 

 ciples of Stock-breeding," accepts telegony. 

 He gives a case in his own breeding. An 

 Essex sow was bred to a Chester White 

 boar. She was afterward mated purely, 

 and produced a litter of pigs which were as 

 much mixed black and white as the previ- 

 ous litter. I was at the time a colleague of 

 Dr. Miles, and with many others had grave 

 doubts regarding the experiment. A care- 

 less work-hand, the accidental opening of a 

 gate, so many things would explain the re- 

 sult without an appeal to telegony. The 

 taint was so great that it could not but 



