SEX. 327 



If there is a great predominance of one sex in the 

 offspring of a female by the same male for a series of 

 years, the result may have been produced through the 

 influence of either parent, or by the combined influ- 

 ence of both ; but it cannot, without other evidence, 

 be attributed to the influence of the female alone. 



There are many well-authenticated cases which 

 show that the female has not the exclusive preroga- 

 tive of determining sex. 



" In the ' Philosophical Transactions ' for the year 

 1787, mention is made of a gentleman who was the 

 youngest of forty sons, all produced in succession 

 from three different wives by one father, in Ireland." l 



One of my Ayrshire cows produced one bull and 

 five heifer calves, the bull being her first calf. Four 

 of her daughters have produced fourteen bull-calves 

 and one heifer one of the daughters had seven bull- 

 calves. These bull-calves, so far as I can trace them, 

 differ greatly in the proportions of the sexes in their 

 offspring, some of them getting a large proportion 

 of females, in which they resemble their grandam, 

 while others get a large proportion of males, in which 

 they resemble their dams. 



These cases, although not sufficient to establish 

 any law regulating the propagation of the sexes, seem 

 to indicate that the sex may, perhaps, have been deter- 

 mined by heredity, the line of descent being repre- 

 sented by an alternation of generations in some cases, 

 and directly in others. 



"A tomb at Ely, Cambridgeshire, England, has 



1 Morton's " Cyclopaedia of Agriculture," vol. i., p. 337 ; Walker on 

 " Intermarriage," p. 229. 



