RELATIVE INFLUENCE OF THE PARENTS. 73 



many instances, to have proved superior to the sire by 

 virtue of the dam's excellence, and to have caused a 

 suspicion in the minds of persons not habituated to com- 

 pare causes with effects, that certain females also pos- 

 sess the property in question." 



The writer gives various instances illustrative of his 

 views, in some of which the male only, and in others 

 the female only, was the high-bred animal, in all of 

 which the progeny bore a remarkable resemblance to 

 the well-bred parent. He says, that where both parents 

 are equally well bred, and of nearly equal individual 

 excellence, it is not probable that their progeny will 

 give general proof of a preponderating power in either 

 parent to impress peculiar characteristics upon the off- 

 spring ; — yet in view of all the information we have 

 upon the subject, he recommends a resort to the best 

 males as the most simple and efficacious mode of im- 

 proving such stocks as require improvement, and the 

 only proceeding by which stock already good can be 

 preserved in excellence. 



Mon. Giron* expresses the opinion that the relative 

 age and vigor of the parents exercises very considera- 

 ble influence, and states as the results -of his observa- 

 tion, that the offspring of an old male and a young 

 female resembles the father less than the mother in pro- 



*In his work, '^De la Generation," Paris, 1828. 



