^4:4: APPENDIX B. 



plication is unlimited. It may, indeed, be said that the alleged 

 distinction should be reversed ; since the fissiparous multiplication 

 of reproductive cells is necessarily interrupted from time to time 

 by coalescence, while that of the somatic cells may go on for a 

 century without being interrupted. 



In the essay to which this is a postscript, conclusions were 

 drawn from the remarkable case of the horse and the quagga, 

 there narrated, along with an analogous case observed among 

 pigs. These conclusions have since been confirmed. I am much 

 indebted to a distinguished correspondent who has drawn my 

 attention to verifying facts furnished by the offspring of whites 

 and negroes in the United States. Referring to information given 

 him many years ago, he says : — " It was to the effect that the 

 children of white women by a white father, had been repeatedly 

 observed to show traces of black blood, in cases when the woman 

 had previous connection with [i.e. a child by] a negro." At the 

 time I received this information, an American was visiting me ; 

 and, on being appealed to, answered that in the United States 

 there was an established belief to this effect. Not wishing, how- 

 ever, to depend upon hearsay, I at once wrote to America to 

 make inquiries. Professor Cope of Philadelphia has written to 

 friends in the South, but has not yet sent me the results. Pro- 

 fessor Marsh, the distinguished palaeontologist, of Yale, New 

 Haven, who is also collecting evidence, sends a preliminary letter 

 in which he says : — " I do not myself know of such a case, but 

 have heard many statements that make their existence probable. 

 One instance, in Connecticut, is vouched for so strongly by an 

 acquaintance of mine, that I have good reason to believe it to 

 be authentic." 



That cases of the kind should not be frequently seen in the 

 North, especially nowadays, is of course to be expected. The 

 first of the above quotations refers to facts observed in the South 

 during slavery days ; and even then, the implied conditions were 

 naturally very infrequent. Dr. W. J. Youmans of New York has, 

 on my behalf, interviewed several medical professors, who, though 

 they have not themselves met with instances, say that the alleged 

 result, described above, " is generally accepted as a fact." But 

 he gives me what I think must be regarded as authoritative tes- 

 timony. It is a quotation from the standard work of Professor 

 Austin Flint, and runs as follows : — 



"A peculiar and, it seems to me, an inexplicable fact is, that previous 

 pregnancies have an influence upon offspring. This is well known to breeders 

 of animals. If pure-blooded mares or bitches have been once covered by an 

 inferior male, in subsequent fecundations the young are likely to partake of 

 the character of the first male, even if they be afterwards bred with males of 

 unimpeachable pedige;. AVliat the mechanism of tl.c influence of the first 



