436 



ACTION OF MALE ELEMENT. 



Chap. XI. 



its origin, said, " Had I not seen I was shoeing a horse, I 

 shoiild have thought I was shoeing a donkey." 



With respect to the varieties of our domesticated animals, 

 many similar and well-authenticated facts have been pub- 

 lished, ^^'^ and others have been communicated to me, plainly 

 showing the influence of the first male on the progeny sub- 

 sequently borne by the mother to other males. It will 

 sufiice to give a single instance, recorded in the ' Philosophical 

 Ti-ansactions,' in a paper following that by Lord Morton : 

 JMr. Giles put a sow of Lord Western's black and white 

 Essex bi'eed to a wild boar of a deep chesnut colour ; and 

 the " pigs produced partook in appearance of both boar and 

 sow, but ill some the chesnut colour of the boar strongly pre- 

 vailed." After the boar had long been dead, the sow was 

 put to a boar of her own black and white breed — a kind 



'*^ Dr. Alex. Harvey on 'A re- 

 markable Effect of Cross-breeding,' 

 1851. On the ' Physiology of Breed- 

 ing,' by Mr. Reginald Orton, 185.5. 

 ' Intermarriage,' by Alex. Walker, 

 1837. 'L'Here'dite Naturelle,' by 

 Dr. Prosper Lucas, torn. ii. p. 58. 

 Mr. W. Sedgwick in ' British and 

 Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Review,' 

 1863, July, p. 183. Bronn, in his 

 ' Geschichte der Natur,' 1843, B. ii. 

 s. 127, has collected several cases 

 with respect to mares, sows, and dogs. 

 Jlr. W. C. L. Martin (' History of 

 the Dog,' 1845, p. 104) says he can 

 jiersonally vouch for the influence 

 of the male parent on subsequent 

 litters by other dogs. A French poet, 

 Jacques Savary, who wrote in 1665 

 on dogs, was aware of this singular 

 fact. Dr. Bowerbank has given us 

 the following striking case : — A black, 

 hairless Barbary bitch was first ac- 

 cidentally impregnated by a mongrel 

 spaniel with long brown hair, and 

 she produced five puppies, three of 

 which were hairless and two covered 

 with sliort brown hair. The next 

 time she was put tc a black, hairless 

 Barbary dog ; " but the mischief 

 had beer implanted in the mother, 

 and again about half the litter looked 

 like pure Barbarys, and the other 



half like the sAori-haired progeny of 

 the first father." I have given in 

 the text one case with pigs ; an 

 equally striking one has been recently 

 published in Germany, ' Illust. 

 Landwirth. Zeitung,' 1868, Nov. 17, 

 p. 143. It is worth notice that 

 farmers in S. Brazil (as I hear from 

 Fritz Miiller), and at the C. of Good 

 Hope (as I have heard from two 

 trustworthy persons) are convinced 

 that mares which have once borne 

 mules, when subsequently put to 

 horses, are extremely liable to pro- 

 duce colts, striped like a mule. Dr. 

 Wilckens, of Pogarth, gives (' Jahrbuch 

 Landwirthschaft,' ii. 1869, p. 325) 

 a striking and analogous case. A 

 merino ram, having two small lappets 

 or flaps of skin on the neck, was in the 

 winter of 1861-62 put to several 

 Merino ewes, all of whom bore lambs 

 with similar flaps on their necks. 

 The ram was killed in the spring of 

 1862, and subsequently to his death 

 the ewes were put to other Merino 

 rams, and in 1863 to Southdown 

 rams, none of v/hom ever have neck 

 lappets : nevertheless, even as long 

 afterwards as 1867, several of these 

 ewes produced lambs bearing these 

 appendages. 



