190 



CAUSES OF VARIATION 



mare at the time of service, and of course are extremely care- 

 ful to protect her from unpleasant colors of any sort. 1 The 

 hold of this theory upon the popular mind is the best example 

 afforded by breeding of the strength of tradition. The supposed 

 reason on which it rests has slight basis in fact. The contact 

 between the mother and the fetus is not so intimate as is popu- 

 larly supposed. The fetus is absolutely dependent upon the 

 mother for nourishment, it is true, and it lies floating in its 

 fleshy incasement, which is in intimate contact with the tissues 

 of the uterus ; but there is no organic connection, no nervous 

 interrelation whatever. 



Anything which would curtail or shut off nourishment would 

 of course injure or destroy the fetus. It is also subject to other 

 accidents, as becoming entangled in its own cord, which may 

 thus divide a limb or cause strangulation, all of which, how- 

 ever, is quite aside from the matter in point. 



The real question is whether, and to what extent, the fetus is 

 influenced by peculiarities of nourishment during its develop- 

 ment. It would of course be injured by poisons, and the danger 

 from administering anaesthetics is great, but this discussion is 

 limited to the direct effect of mental impressions. 



The indifference of the fetus to its source of nourishment is 

 shown by an experiment of Heape, 2 performed for another pur- 

 pose, but throwing light upon these questions. In this experiment 

 " two segmenting ova were obtained from an Angora doe rabbit 

 which had been fertilized by an Angora buck thirty-two hours 

 previously, and were immediately transferred to the upper end 

 of the Fallopian tube of a Belgian hare rabbit which had been 

 fertilized three hours before by a buck of the same breed as 

 herself. In due course this Belgian hare doe gave birth to six 

 young. Four of these resembled herself and her mate, but the 

 other two were undoubted Angoras. 3 . . . Both of the Angoras 

 were born bigger and stronger than any of the other young, and 



1 For a good collection of alleged instances, see Miles, Stock Breeding, 

 pp. 281-295, or consult any neighborhood oracle. 



2 Vernon, Variation in Animals and Plants, pp. 119-120; also Proceedings of 

 the Royal Society, XLVIII, 457. 



8 The Angoras were characterized and easily distinguished by their long, 

 silky hair and their habit of swaying the head from side to side. 



