346 ON THE INFLUENCE OF MALE AND FEMALE PARENTS. 



paratively with the depth of its chest and shoulders ; and an animal 

 in the latter form will be greatly preferable, either for the purposes of 

 labour, or of food to mankind. I have seen this difference in the influ- 

 ence of the male and female parent on the offspring very strikingly 

 exemplified in the result of an attempt to obtain very large mules from 

 the male ass and the mare. The largest females that could be procured 

 were selected, and the forms of the offspring, at the birth, were perfectly 

 consistent with the theory of Mr. Cline ; they were remarkably large : 

 and I observed that the length of their legs, when they were only a few 

 days old, very nearly equalled that of the legs of their female parents. 

 I examined the same animals when five years old, and in the depth of 

 their chests and shoulders they very little exceeded their male parent ; 

 and they were consequently of little or no value ; whilst other mules 

 which were obtained from the same male parent (a Spanish ass), but 

 from mares of small stature, were perfectly well proportioned. I have 

 never seen the little mule which is propagated from the female ass and 

 the horse, nor even a delineation or description of its form ; but I do 

 not entertain any doubt that its chest and shoulders are excessively 

 deep and strong, comparatively with the length of its legs, and that, on 

 account of this peculiarity in its form, it has been so frequently shown 

 on the Continent, under the name of a jumart, as the pretended offspring 

 of the mare and the bull. 



In opposing the theory advanced by Mr. Cline, it is not by any means 

 my intention to enter the lists with him as a physiologist ; but as a 

 farmer and breeder of animals of different species, I have probably had 

 many advantages which he has not possessed ; and my conclusions have 

 been drawn from very extensive, and, I believe, accurate observation. 



There is another respect in which the powers of the female appear to 

 be prevalent in their influence on the offspring, and that is relative to 

 its sex. In several species of domesticated, or cultivated animal (I believe 

 in all), particular females are found to produce a very large majority, 

 and sometimes all their offspring, of the same sex; and I have proved 

 repeatedly, that, by dividing a herd of thirty cows into three equal parts, 

 I could calculate, with confidence, upon a large majority of females from 

 one part, of males from another, and upon nearly an equal number of 

 males and females from the remainder. I frequently endeavoured to 

 change these habits by changing the male, but always without success ; 

 and I have in some instances observed the offspring of one sex, though 

 obtained from different males, to exceed those of the other in the pro- 

 portion of five or six, and even seven to one. When, on the contrary, 



