PREPOTENCY. 



WE HAVE seen that the ideal law of inherit- 

 ance is an equal mingling in the offspring of 

 the natures of the parents. This, however, is 

 rarely to be met in practical breeding. For 

 various reasons greater vigor of race or indi- 

 vidual character, for example, in one parent 

 than the other the ideal is seldom attained. 

 The young animal nearly always shows a closer 

 resemblance to one progenitor than the other. 

 The facts are very many, and the classification 

 of them is as yet incomplete and the deduc- 

 tions drawn from them tentative. Many theo- 

 ries have been advanced to explain the observed 

 facts. But the incompleteness of the data upon 

 which the speculations rest is well shown by 

 the fact that the theories are conflicting and 

 at times directly contradictory. 



Out of this chaos of speculation and out of 

 the immense number of observations made in 

 the formulation and buttressing of the deduc- 

 tions of this and that class of thinkers a gen- 

 eral skepticism as to such laws of special organic 

 influence in all cases of a single character has 

 grown up and the theories have largely given 



(48) 



