Reports of Committees. 45 



live in their offspring. Parents transmit th^Ir in lividual peculiarities of color, 

 form, longevity, idiosyncracy, &c. to their offspring, as a general rule, both parents 

 being always represented, but which is the predominating influence is not ascertain- 

 able, sometimes the male preponderating in one direction an 1 the fern lie influence in 

 another, yet this direction being by no means constant, an 1 often reversed and the 

 direction being undoubtedly controlled by the age, strength and other qualities o; 

 the sire or darn. Bakewell, the famous English breeder, would let or sell his rams, 

 but held his ewes sacred, neither selling nor letting them, considering the female 

 influence preponderated to the best advantage. Many farmers consider that the 

 property of abundant secretion of milk is more certain to be transmitted from a bull 

 than from a cow, whilst the majority are careless as to the character of the bull, 

 provided the cow is of a good milking family. In the scale of humanity, all men 

 of genius <ne said to have had remarkable mothers, yet a history of "hereditary 

 genius" shows that as many men have been indebted for their intellectual qualities 

 to the male as to the female side of the house. As no positive rule can be laid down , 

 the best to follow is to have both sire and dam as near perfect as possible and then 

 lie can say of the progeny 



" Half is his and half is hers ; it will be worthy of the two."' 



To every general rule there are always some exceptions, and while proclaiming as 

 absolute the law of individual transmission — that the parents are often reproduced 

 in their offspring, we are met by the obvious fact of the offspring of her exhibiting^ 

 si marked a departure from their parents, that the law seems a fault. The most 

 singular modification of this law of inheritance is known as atavism, (from the 

 Latin atavus — an ancestor) in accordance with which the individual does not re- 

 seml )!e either parent, but the great parent or some ancestor in either the direct or 

 collateral line. Exceptions of this sort are common in the human species, and tit 

 unfrequently among the lower animals, which sometimes bring forth young so ut- 

 terly unlike themselves as to have been long mistaken for different species ; while 

 these young in their turn bring forth animals exactly like their ancestors. 



There are certain other perturbing influences to explain, which would be to solve 

 the whole mystery of heritage, and we can only cite a few instances. A striking 

 case which has become celebrated, is that of an English thorough-bred mare, which, 

 in the year 1810, had a mule by a guaffa — an animal of the zebra kind — the mule 

 bearing the unmistakable guana marks. In the years 1817, 1818 and 18"J:'. this 

 mare again foaled, and although she had not seen the guaffa since 181G, her three 

 foals were all marked with the curious guaffa marks. Among our pure white 

 Chester County hogs we often find a litter partly black, owing, undoubtedly, to a 

 crossing, generations back, with the Berkshires. These facts suggest the importance to 

 breeders of observing narrowly the first breedings of their heifers, as a taint of im- 

 purity from inferior stock may infect their whole progeny subsequently, and also of 

 the importance of scrutinizing severely the pedigree of any animal to be purchased 

 for breeding purposes, that it may be ascertained that he or she is " descended from 

 a line of ancestors in which for generations the desirable forms, qualities and char- 

 acteristics have been uniformly shown.** Climate, food, age, health, &c, exert 

 influence upon individual variations. The offspring of an old male for instance, 

 and a young female, resembling the father less than the mother in proportion as the 



