46 CATTLE-BREEDING. 



special inheritance of the traits of grandparents 

 to an intermediate class. 



I shall content myself for the present with 

 quoting one further instance of atavic mani- 

 festation of a most remarkable character, and 

 which is vouched for by high medical authority; 

 if it were not that other similar cases are on 

 record it would be quite incredible. It may be 

 added that albinos are often thus produced at 

 frequent intervals in some negro families. The 

 story runs thus (Ribot, "Heredity," page 169,): 

 "Two negro slaves living on the same Virginia 

 plantation were married. The wife gave birth 

 to a daughter who was perfectly white. On 

 seeing the color of the child she was seized with 

 alarm, and while protesting that she never had 

 intercourse with a white man, she tried to hide 

 the infant, and put out the light lest the father 

 should see it. He soon came in, complained of 

 the unusual darkness of the room, and asked 

 to see the babe. The mother's fears were in- 

 creased when she saw the father approach with 

 a light, but when he saw the child he appeared 

 pleased. A few days afterward he said to his 

 wife: 'You were afraid of me because my child 

 was white, but I love her all the more on that 

 account. My own father was white, although 

 my grandfather and grandmother were as black 

 as you and I. Although we are come from a 

 country where white men are never seen, still 



