TELEGONY AND REVERSION. 57 



TJie Mortoniaii Tninl-. — For all we know, breeders since 

 the days of the patriarchs may have believed not only in 

 the influence on the offspring of mental impressions, but 

 also in the influence of a previous sire ; that the offspring 

 sometimes resemble not so much " the father, but an early 

 mate of the mother," and that the female comes to re- 

 semble more and more the male to which she continues to 

 bear offspring. We cei'tainly know that what used to be 

 spoken of as the " infection of the germ," but which, fol- 

 lowing Weismann, we now-a-days call " telegony,""^ was 

 considered possible by physiologists at the end of the 

 seventeenth century ; we know the infection tradition has 

 loug influenced Arab breeders, and that believers in this 

 hypothesis may now be found in every part of the world, 

 more especially wherever an overlapping of distinct races 

 occurs, as, e. g., in the Southern States of America and in 

 certain Turkish provinces. Further, until quite recently 

 many biologists considered that what is commonly and 

 conveniently known as Lord Morton's experiment had 

 proved " infection of the germ " to at least occasionally 

 take place. Of these three main trunks I propose dealing 

 with the last, i. e. with telegony, and with some of the re- 

 sults obtained by crossing zebi^as and horses. 



Lord Morton's Experiment, and the Vieics of Darwin, 

 Weismann, and others. 



It is admitted on all hands that the time has more than 

 come when the belief in the transmission of acquired 

 characters should be tested by carefully conducted experi- 

 ments. Already a number of isolated experiments have 

 been made without any decisive results, but (probably on 

 account of the difficulties to be overcome) no one has 

 hitherto repeated Lord Morton's experiment. Weismann, 



with nature, whether they admit it or no, are more or less teieologists ; 

 besides admitting that there are unfathomable mysteries, they, unconsciously 

 it may be, believe not only that there is order in the universe, but that a 

 kind of intelligence pervades nature. 



* from Ti)\s, at a distance ; and yovog, offspring. 



