64 TELEGONY AND EEVERSION. 



sider telegony lias been proved. I do not dispute the 

 possibility of telegony ; I grant that the wide general 

 acceptance of the belief in the past has so impressed me 

 that I have always said that possibly it might be justifiable 

 and founded on fact. I should accept a case like that of 

 Lord Morton's mare as satisfactory evidence if it were 

 quite certainly beyond doubt. But that is by no means 

 the case, as Settegast has abundantly proved. . . . The 

 attempt must be made to determine the truth by new 

 experiments. . . . According to scientific princi'ples, only 

 the confirmation of the tradition by inethodical investigation, 

 in this case hy experiment, could raise telegony to the rank of 

 a fact." ^ Not a few biologists and breeders agree with 

 Weismann in questioning the fact of telegony, in consider- 

 ing " infection " as extremely improbable if not absolutely 

 impossible. Why, it may be asked, are many naturalists 

 now-a-days not satisfied with the evidence afforded by 

 Lord Morton's case ? Why does Weismann tell us he 

 inclines to Settegast's view '' that there is no such thing 

 as an ' infection ' of this kind, and that all the instances 

 which have been recorded and discussed critically . . . 

 are based upon a misconception ? "t Why, while the belief 

 in infection forms an important part of the creed of breeders, 

 did Romanes and other scientific believers in telegony think 

 it occurred but rarely, in only one or two per cent, of cases ? 

 When Lord Morton's case is considered critically the 

 evidence in support of infection is found to consist chiefly 

 (1) in the colt and filly presenting quagga- or, to be more 

 accurate, zebra-like markings; and (2) in the filly having, 

 according to Lord Morton, a quagga-like mane while the 

 colt had a mane like the quagga hybrid. Weismann, fol- 

 lowing Settegast and others, if asked to account for the 

 stripes on the colt and filly, would reply by saying they were 

 due to reversion or atavism. This answer I need hardly 

 point out is based on the assumption that there is such a 

 thing as reversion, and on the further assumption that the 



* Contemporary Review, vol. Ixiv. 

 f 'Tlie Germ-plasm,' p. 38G. 



