170 APPENDIX. 



the reproductive organs of the female^, and not through the 

 intervention of the crossed embryo. 



Another believer in telegony who may be mentioned is 

 Agassiz. As the resnlt of various experiments, he satisfied 

 himself " that the act of fecundation is not an act which is 

 limited in its effect, but that it is an act which affects the 

 whole system, the sexual system especially ; and in the 

 sexual system the ovaiy to be impregnated hereafter is so 

 modified by the first act, that later impregnations do not 

 efface that first impression." 



But while Darwin, Spencer, Agassiz, andEomanes believe 

 more or less firmly in telegony, there are many who are 

 either doubters or unbelievers. The most prominent of 

 these is Weismann, who inclines to the view that there is 

 no such thing as an " infection of the germ." In a 

 recent number of the Contemjjorary Review"^ he writes as 

 follows : 



" I must say that to this day, and in spite of the addi- 

 tional cases brought forward by Spencer and Romanes, I 

 do not consider that telegony has 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. 1 should 

 accept a case like that of Lord Morton's mare as satis- 

 factory evidence if it were quite certainly beyond doubt. 

 But that is by no means the case, as Settegast has abun- 

 dantly proved." , 



Weismann does not doubt that after the mare had borne 

 a hybrid to a quagga she subsequently had colts by a horse, 

 and that these were marked with stripes on the neck, 

 withers, and legs, but he contends that there were no 

 other characteristics of the quagga discernible in the colts. 

 The stripes do not in themselves, Settegast thinks, amount 

 to proof, " for every experienced horse-breeder knows " 

 that " cases are not very rare in which colts are born with 

 stripes that recall those of the quagga or zebra. They 

 * Vol. Ixiv. 



