MR. J. F. NISBETS VIEWS 343 



immature ova impregnated by the impure contact might 

 take a long period to develop. 



' Some little time ago certain remarks of mine in " The 

 Referee " on the subject attracted an interesting letter from 

 Mr. John Arthur Tatham, of Southport, Lancashire. " The 

 late Mr. Romanes," my correspondent wrote, " desired me to 

 ascertain the opinion of dog owners as to the influence of 

 a previous sire upon subsequent offspring got by a different 

 sire. The result was nil. But in America a few friends 

 set to work and collected authentic facts as to a large 

 number of bitches which, having gone astray, had had 

 litters by mongrels, and afterwards pure-bred litters. The 

 litters were not tainted in any way except in the relation 

 of one to fifty. The conclusion, I am bound to arrive at 

 myself," added Mr. Tatham, "is that in very rare instances 

 mesalliance does affect future offspring." Here, it will be 

 seen, there is the usual element of hearsay and doubt; 

 and I do not know that, even yet, the controversy as to the 

 transmissibility of acquired characteristics is any nearer 

 settlement than when first raised. My own leanings, I 

 may say, are to Weismannism. 



' Upon " roaring " in horses the bearing of this contro- 

 versy is obvious. Roaring is generally believed by 

 racing men to be acquired after the animal has reached 

 maturity ; and, primd facie, if Weismann is correct it ought 

 not to be inherited. How greatly this, if established, 

 would alter the list of first-class sires I need not point 

 out. It is very difficult to say of certain diseases 

 whether they are acquired or inherited, and " roaring " is 

 one of these. My own impression is that roaring is not, 

 properly speaking, an acquired characteristic. The fact of 

 a horse becoming a roarer would seem to me to denote 

 a certain congenital weakness in the respiratory organs. 

 Without the strain of hard work this weakness might 

 never reveal itself, but it would nevertheless be there and 

 not like to be transmitted. On the other hand, I should 

 be liable to commit myself to the statement that roaring 

 could not be induced in a sound horse by excessive exer- 

 cise, though in that case I should not expect it to be 

 transmissible. As the complaint is, however, apparently 

 transmissible, I should look for its origin, as a rule, in a 

 congenital state of the respiratory organs entirely com- 

 patible with the Weismann theory. The question is one that 



