INTRODUCTION. 71 



not totally sterile. There are besides phenomena as 

 yet not satisfactorily explained, in the few and partial 

 experiments that have been made relating to this 

 very question of intermixture,, and the traces it leaves 

 on succeeding generations : phenomena which the 

 remarks of Mr. Bell and Mr. Macdonald have not 

 set at rest, and where superfetation is out of the 

 question. We allude to the characters of the sire 

 of the mothers first offspring remaining impressed 

 upon the succeeding in form, colours and markings, 

 although the first was of a different species and the 

 second of the same as the female ; thereby showing 

 a tendency to propagate strange forms in preference 

 to the homogeneous. The most striking example of 

 these facts was made known by the late Earl of 

 Morton and recorded in the Philosophical transactions 

 for the year 1821, where it is stated that he had 

 bred an hybrid foal, between a chestnut mare of f 

 Arabian blood and a Quagga, which in form and 

 colour bore decided evidence of a mixed origin ; this 

 was her first foal ; but where interest was most ex- 

 cited occurred five years after, when the same mare, 

 then the property of Sir Gore Ousely, bred by a black 

 Arabian horse a filly and the next year a colt, by the 

 same parent, which, although both were then unques- 

 tionably Jths of pure Arabian blood, of homogene- 

 ous species, still retained strong marks of the anterior 

 spurious commixture, in the character of the mane, 

 the colour of the hair, and in the striped markings 

 on the neck, shoulders and joints ! These facts were 

 fully corroborated by the late Dr. Wollaston and in 



