CHAPTER XL 



EELATIVE INFLUENCE OF PARENTS. 



THEEE are many theories in regard to the relative 

 influence of parents upon their offspring, some of 

 which, without sufficient reason, have been quite gen- 

 erally accepted as established physiological truths. 

 The Highland Agricultural Society of Scotland, in 

 1825, awarded prizes to four essays 1 on this subject, 

 that were presented for competition. 



In the first volume of " Transactions " of the soci- 

 ety, Mr. BoswelPs essay is published in full, while ab- 

 stracts only of the others are given. 



Mr. Christian claims that " any hypothesis which 

 would assign a superiority, or set limits to the influ- 

 ence of either sex in the product of generation, is un- 

 sound and inadmissible." His essay is but briefly 

 noticed, yet, so far as the influence of sex alone is 

 concerned, his position has not been successfully con- 

 troverted. The theory advanced by Mr. Boswell, 



1 These essays were written by John Boswell, Rev. Henry Berry, 

 Mr. Christian, and H. N. Dallas, in answer to the following question, 

 which was presented by the society for discussior : " Whether the 

 breed of live-stock connected with agriculture be susceptible of the 

 greatest improvement from the qualities conspicuous in the male, or 

 from those conspicuous in the female parent ? " (" Transactions of the 

 Highland Agricultural Society," vol. i., p. 17). 



