THE LAW OF LIKENESS, AND ITS WORKING. 217 



The case of the " Ancon " or "Otter" sheep serves as an 

 apt illustration not only of the transmission of characters to 

 the offspring, but likewise of the sudden appearance and 

 development of characters not accounted for by heredity. 

 In the year 1791 a ewe belonging to a Massachusetts farmer 

 produced a lamb differing materially from its neighbours in 

 that its legs were disproportionately short, whilst its body 

 was disproportionately long. This departure from the 

 ordinary type of the sheep could not be accounted for in any 

 way ; the variation being, as far as could be ascertained, 

 perfectly spontaneous. The single short-legged sheep became 

 the progenitor of others, and in due time a race of ancons 

 was produced ; the variety, however, falling into neglect, and 

 ultimately disappearing, on account of the introduction of 

 the merino sheep, and of the attention paid to the develop- 

 ment of the latter breed. The law of likeness in the case of 

 the ancon sheep proved normal in its working after the 

 introduction of the first ancon. The offspring of two ancons 

 was thus invariably a pure otter sheep ; the progeny of an 

 ancon and an ordinary sheep being also pure either in the 

 direction of the sheep or the ancon; no blending or mixture 

 of the two races ever taking place. The law of likeness thus 

 holds good in its ordinary operation, but takes no account 

 and gives no explanation of the abstruse and unknown 

 causes arising from the law of variation, and on which the 

 development of the first ancon sheep depended. 



The heredity and transmission of mere influences, which 

 have been simply impressed upon either parent, and which 

 form no part of the parent's original constitution, presents 

 some of the most marvellous, as well as some of the most 

 inexplicable, features of animal and plant development. 

 Thus an Italian naturalist, taking the pollen or fertilising 

 matter from the stamens of the lemon, fertilised the flowers 

 of the orange. The result was that one of the oranges, 

 subsequently produced, exhibited a portion of its substance 

 which was not only coloured like the lemon, but preserved 

 the distinct flavour of the latter fruit. Changes of similar 



