MENDEL'S LAWS OF INHERITANCE 23 



Latent Characters in the individual animal are well illus- 

 trated by secondary sexual characters lying dormant in the 

 opposite sex but under certain circumstances tending to 

 develop. Various male mammals have been induced to 

 secrete milk by the sucking action of the young. With age 

 a mare often assumes the arched masculine neck of a stallion, 

 and old hens have been known to crow like a cock and to 

 assume male plumage in part In virtue of this law of 

 Nature a good milch cow can transmit her good qualities to her 

 progeny through her male offspring. The close study given 

 to the size and position of the rudimentary teats of a bull of a 

 milk-producing breed is evidence of the common belief in 

 the principle. The tendency and power to produce rich milk 

 runs in families, and is transmitted through both male and 

 female, as the tendency to produce much milk is acknowledged 

 to be. Apart from the sexual connection, it is " admitted that 

 certain characters, capacities, and instincts may lie latent in 

 an individual, and even in a succession of individuals, without 

 our being able to detect the least sign of their presence." 

 The inventive faculty in man a rare and very distinct char- 

 acteristic in certain families will skip one or more generations 

 again to reappear. 



Gregor Mendel's Laws of Inheritance, illustrated by 

 experiments on peas, were communicated to the Briinn 

 Society in 1865 and published 1866. It having been asserted 

 that Mendel's laws are equally applicable to the cross-breed- 

 ing of live stock, it is necessary briefly to explain them 

 (although botanical examples of their application are most 

 complete and best for the purpose), and to state that at 

 present we are unable to discover any relation they bear to 

 the Animal Kingdom which could be of practical utility to 

 the farmer. They completely break down in the results got 

 by crossing such conspicuous polled breeds as the Galloway 

 and the Aberdeen-Angus with white Shorthorn bulls. No 

 animal was ever produced from such a union that assumed the 

 leading characteristics of any one of the breeds named. Over 

 90 per cent, of the cross-bred progeny are hornless ; when horns 

 appear they are generally loose scurs, and the colour is with 

 rare exceptions a blend, " blue-grey," or varied by atavism. 



Mendel's attention was directed not to the plant as a 

 whole, but to its individual characters colour, shape of seed, 



