72 A TREATISE ON HORSE-BREEDING. 



women had their first children by negroes, and afterward 

 marrying white men had children as purely white as those 

 of their neighbors. Instances in which an opposite result 

 has ensued he attributes to the effect of imagination. Now, 

 the theory I offer will perfectly explain the in frequency ol 

 the occurrence in the human subject, as compared with the 

 lower animals. In the mare the connection of the afterbirth 

 with the womb takes place over the entire surface of the 

 latter. The points of intimate attachment, therefore, in 

 successive pregnancies, are the same. In the cow and ewe 

 the womb is studded with button-like processes, to the num- 

 ber of fifty or sixty, containing the uterine gland, and form- 

 ing the points of attachment for the foetal membranes in all 

 pregnancies alike. In the sow the foetal membranes of each 

 pig are attached to the whole adjacent uterine mucous mem- 

 brane as in the mare. Lastly, in the bitch each foetal mem- 

 brane has a broad, circular, villous belt embracing almost its 

 entire surface, and connecting it to the mucous membrane of 

 the womb. In all of these animals the foetal membranes are 

 connected with the same parts of the uterus in each succes- 

 sive pregnancy, so that the ingrafting or inoculation between 

 membranes and womb, and between womb and membranes 

 and foetus, cannot fail to take place. It must be borne in 

 mind that these membranes are outgrowths from the ovum 

 or embryo, and thus, through the male and female genera- 

 tive elements, partake of the nature of both sire and dam. 

 In other words, like the young animal, the product of con- 

 ceptions of which they are a dependency, the membranes 

 have been produced by the union of the male and female 

 elements; and where they lie in direct contact with the 

 womb, separated only by a thin layer of cells in part pro- 

 duced by the womb and in part by the membrane, an inocu- 

 lating, engrafting or modifying action is effected by the one 

 on the other. In woman the arrangement of the foetal mem- 

 branes is altogether different. Their intimate connection 

 with the walls of the womb is confined to one circumscribed 

 portion of the surface of each; and as the point of attach- 

 ment can hardly fail to be different in successive pregnancies 

 the chances of a former child influencing the characters of 



