HEREDITY 297 



responding to a mulatto, the second to a quadroon, 

 the third to an octoroon, and so on, might be given at 

 once by transfusion. Bleeding is the simplest of 

 operations, and I knew that transfusion had been 

 performed on a large scale ; therefore I set about 

 making minute inquiries. 



These took a long time, and required much con- 

 sideration. At length I determined upon trying the 

 experiment on the well-known breed of rabbits called 

 silver greys, of which pure breeds were obtainable, 

 and to exchange much of their blood for that of the 

 common lop-eared rabbit ; afterwards to breed from 

 pairs of silver greys in each of which alien blood had 

 been largely transfused. This was done in 1871 on 

 a considerable scale. I soon succeeded in establishing 

 a vigorous cross-circulation that lasted several minutes 

 between rabbits of different breeds, as described in 

 the Proceedings of the Royal Society, 1871 [25]. 

 The experiments were thorough, and misfortunes 

 very rare. It was astonishing to see how quickly the 

 rabbits recovered after the effect of the anaesthetic 

 had passed away. It often happened that their 

 spirits and sexual aptitudes were in no way dashed 

 by an operation which only a few minutes before had 

 changed nearly one half of the blood that was in their 

 bodies. Out of a stock of three silver grey bucks 

 and four silver grey does, whose blood had been thus 

 largely adulterated, and of three common bucks and 

 four common does whose blood had been similarly 

 altered, I bred eighty-eight rabbits in thirteen litters 

 without any evidence of alteration of breed. All this 

 is described in detail in the Memoir. 



I was indebted to expert friends for making these 



