138 TELEGONY AND REVERSION. 



mode of reaching and infecting developing (maturing) 

 reproductive cells, it by no means follows the offspring- 

 resulting from these cells will resemble the previous sire. 

 All that could be safely asserted is that the subsequent 

 offspring would resemble the previous offspring, or the 

 ancestors of the immediate parents. If, for example, 

 Mulatto^s germ-plasm was indirectly infected by germ- 

 plasm from her first foal during its development, her 

 second foal to the Arab horse (granting telegony is true) 

 should more or less resemble her first foal (Romulus), or 

 one of her remote ancestors, rather than her first mate 

 Matopo. 



Professor Weismann thinks telegony (if it occurs) is best 

 accounted for by supposing that some of the germ-plasm 

 of the first sire reaches and penetrates some of the imma- 

 ture ova as well as the mature one from which the first 

 embryo is developed."^ This germ-plasm, instead of merely 

 serving as so much nourishment to these immature ova, 

 according to this view retains its independence and event- 

 ually asserts its influence on the future progeny to a second 

 and different sire. This may be better understood by an 

 example. If any given simple unicellular organism were 

 to devour another but smaller organism belonging to a 

 different variety or species, and then unite with one of its 

 own species, when division eventually took place the new 

 individuals would (supposing the comparison to hold) pre- 

 sent some of the characters of the species originally devoured 

 as food. Although it is difficult to understand how an egg 

 could incorporate germ-plasm in this way while still in pro- 

 cess of maturing, and still more difficult to understand how 

 this incorporated germ-plasm could retain for an indefinite 

 time its independent existence (play the part, as it were, 

 of an encysted cellular parasite, which at the right moment 

 wakes up and insists on being represented in the future off- 

 spring), this explanation, regardless of the fact that vestiges 

 of male germ-cells have never been seen in immature ova, 



* Weismaim, 'The Germ-plasm.' 



