174 APPENDIX. 



of the first sire on all subsequent offspring is a subject of 

 very considerable importance^ that has not received the 

 scientific investigation that it merits. It is generally 

 accepted by breeders of dogs, and in the case of valuable 

 animals the effect of a mesalliance is carefully guarded 

 against. It is one that is recognised by physiologists as 

 affecting the human species,* and the example of the 

 striped foals that were always bred by a mare whose first 

 foal was a hybrid of zebra parentage is well known. '^ 



" Whether this young ass bred in the Gardens is merely 

 an accidental variation, or whether it owes its peculiarities 

 to the influence of the Hemippe [Asiatic first sire] is a 

 point I will not endeavour to decide."t 



In the chapters on mules and mule-breeding the influ- 

 ence of the first sire is again refei'red to. In support of 

 the statement that male and female mules and hinnies are, 

 as far as is known, " absolutely sterile," the authors quote 

 from Captain Hayes as follows : 



" Neither the mule (the produce of the jackass and 

 mare) nor the hinny or jennet (the cross between the 

 horse and the she-ass) is fertile, either among themselves 

 or with other members of the horse family. Those animals 

 which have been mistaken by superficial observers as fertile 

 mules have been, I venture to say, in most cases the off- 

 spring of mares that have previously bred to donkeys, and 

 have endowed their young with some of the characteristics 

 of their former asinine lovers. Both the mule and the 

 jennet respectively 'take after' their dam in size, and 

 their sire in apjDearance and disposition." 



That the authors agree with Captain Hayes may be 

 gathered from what they say as to the "mule" which 

 produced foals to both the horse and the ass in the Accli- 

 matisation Gardens in Paris. After pointing out that " it 

 is doubtful whether the animal is a mule," they add, "It 

 is not at all improbable that her female parent had bred a 



* I have never heard of a well-authenticated case of tele£i;oiiy in the 

 human species. — J. C E. 

 t Ibid., ])i). 15 aud 16. 



