GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 37 



means combined, we may succeed in obliter- 

 ating certain well-defined characteristics, and 

 in modifying a given type, until the new form 

 or character that we have created will, in its 

 turn, be transmitted with reasonable certainty; 

 but suddenly the germ that has lain dormant 

 for so many generations asserts itself, and, 

 greatly to our surprise, the characteristics of 

 the original stock will reappear. As I have 

 before remarked, these cases of reversion most 

 frequently occur when cross-breeding is re- 

 sorted to. The counter currents of hereditary 

 influence, which are, by this means, brought 

 into contact, having a common origin, appear 

 to awaken into being a germ which has for 

 generations been a silent factor in each of the 

 newly-created breeds, and enables it to again 

 assume control of the organism. 



In addition to the general and well-defined 

 operation of the laws of heredity to which I 

 have alluded, its operations in the transmis- 

 sion of individual characteristics, although not 

 clearly defined, and never to be depended upon, 

 are often wonderful. The son is frequently, in 

 some respects, the exact duplicate of the father, 

 and the daughter of the mother. Sometimes a 

 peculiarity which belonged to the grandsire lies 

 dormant in the son, but crops out as strong as 

 ever in the second or third generation. Again, 

 we find peculiarities transmitted from father 



