PROFESSOR WEISMANN'S THEORIES. 485 



tation, the remembrance of a remark I heard many years ago 

 concerning dogs, led to the inquiry whether they furnished analo- 

 gous evidence. It occurred to me that a friend who is frequently 

 appointed judge of animals at agricultural shows, Mr. Fookes, of 

 Fairfield, Pewsey, Wiltshire, might know something about the 

 matter. A letter to him brought various confirmatory statements. 

 From one " who had bred dogs for many years " he learned that 



" It is a well-known and admitted fact that if a bitch has two litters by two 

 different dogs, the character of the first father is sure to be perpetuated in any 

 litters she may afterward have, no matter how pure-bred a dog may be the be- 

 getter." 



After citing this testimony, Mr. Fookes goes on to give illustra- 

 tions known to himself. 



" A friend of mine near this had a very valuable Dachshund bitch, which most 

 unfortunately had a litter by a stray sheep-dog. The next year her owner sent her 

 on a visit to a pure Dachshund dog, but the produce took quite as much of the 

 first father as the second, and the next year he sent her to another Dachshund 

 with the same result. Another case : A friend of mine in Devizes had a litter of 

 puppies, unsought for, by a setter from a favorite pointer bitch, and after this 

 she never bred any true pointers, no matter of what the paternity was." 



These further evidences, to which Mr. Fookes has since added 

 others, render the general conclusion incontestable. Coming from 

 remote places, from those who have no theory to support, and who 

 are some of them astonished by the unexpected phenomena, the 

 agreement dissipates all doubt. In four kinds of mammals, widely 

 divergent in their natures man, horse, dog, and pig we have 

 this same seemingly anomalous kind of heredity made visible 

 under analogous conditions. We must take it as a demonstrated 

 fact that, during gestation, traits of constitution inherited from 

 the father produce effects upon the constitution of the mother; 

 and that these communicated effects are transmitted by her to 

 subsequent offspring. We are supplied with an absolute disproof 

 of Prof. Weismann's doctrine that the reproductive cells are in- 

 dependent of, and uninfluenced by, the somatic cells ; and there 

 disappears absolutely the alleged obstacle to the transmission of 

 acquired characters. 



Notwithstanding experiences showing the futility of contro- 

 versy for the establishment of truth, I am tempted here to answer 

 opponents at some length. But even could the editor allow me 

 the needful space, I should be compelled both by lack of time and 

 by ill health to be brief. I must content myself with noticing a 

 few points which most nearly concern me. 



Referring to my argument respecting tactual discriminative- 

 ness, Mr. Wallace thinks that I 



