34 



FARMER'S CYCLOPEDIA OF LIVE STOCK 



second husband who resembled the 

 first but not the second husband. Such 

 cases come largely from tbe time of slav- 

 ery in this country and there is no good 

 evidence for any of them. An Arabian 

 mare belonging to the Earl of Morton 

 and once covered by a quagga is said to 

 have shown unmistakable markings of 

 the quagga in all of her subsequent colts 

 by Arabian stallions. Goodwin reports 

 that in the royal stud in Hampton court 

 mares had colts with the markings of a 

 previous stallion by which they had been 

 served. Many similar cases have been 

 collected relating to horses. From 

 Massachusetts, Michigan and Tennessee 

 come stories of mares once served by 

 jacks and which have subsequently pro- 

 duced colts with long ears and marks 

 of jacks even when served by pure bred 

 stallions. Tbe literature of the subject 

 teems with such cases in cattle, sheep, 

 goats, swine, dogs, rabbits and guinea 

 pigs as well as in fowls. The idea in- 

 volved in the notion of telegony is that 

 the female becomes contaminated or in- 

 fected by the first male by which she is 

 served and that this influence is never 

 or at least not quickly eradicated. If 

 such a condition were true, a pure bred 

 dam once impregnated by a mongrel 

 sire could never afterwards be depended 

 upon to produce pure offspring even 

 from pure bred sires. 



Many distinguished scientists have 

 lent the influence of their name to this 

 popular belief, but without performing 

 any actual experiments to test the mat- 

 ter. Darwin reported numerous in- 

 stances apparently with approval and the 

 same may be said of Agassiz, Law, Har- 

 vey and others. Several elaborate ex- 

 planations have been proposed for the 

 phenomenon, the most ingenious being 

 the theory first suggested by Newport 

 and later worked out by Weismann. 

 This was to the effect that the sperma- 

 tozoa of the male not only fertilize the 

 mature egg which has left the ovary, but 

 also enter and partly fertilize many or 

 all of the immature eggs in the ovary. 

 These eggs when subsequently fertilized 

 at maturity by another male would con- 

 tain some of the hereditary tendencies 

 of the former male. It is hardly neces- 

 sary to say that no evidence for such a 

 process has ever been produced. 



Ewart's experiments — After cases 

 of telegony had been collected for many 

 years and a quite general belief in 

 the phenomenon established, Professor 

 Ewart subjected the matter to a care- 

 ful test by crossing horses and zebras. 



Ewart examined in a critical manner 

 a number of cases usually mentioned 

 as supporting the hypothesis of telegony 

 in horses. In all cases other simpler ex- 

 planations were found for the actual 

 phenomena without resorting to any 

 theory of infection, corruption or influ- 

 ence of a previous sire. The experi- 

 ments conducted by Ewart were chiefly 

 confined to the production of crosses be- 

 tween horses and zebras and the raising 

 of colts from tbe same mares after pro- 

 duction of the hybrids. In these experi- 

 ments chestnut, brown and black mares 

 were employed and in some cases the 

 mare was bred alternately to horse and 

 zebra stallions in order to give the best 

 possible opportunity for judging any 

 influence of the zebra upon the appear- 

 ance or conformation of the colts. No 

 evidence whatever was obtained in sup- 

 port of the theory of telegony. The colts 

 obtained from mares which had previ- 

 ously been bred to zebras were true to 

 their parents in every respect and exhib- 

 ited no mental or physical traits of the 

 zebra. Experiments of Baron de Parana 

 in Brazil also gave results distinctly op- 

 posed to the theory of influence of a 

 previous sire. Ewart also conducted ex- 

 periments for the purpose of determin- 

 ing whether any support for the hypothe- 

 sis of telegony could be obtained from 

 breeding mares to different breeds of 

 stallions in succession. The results from 

 these tests were also unfavorable to the 

 theory of telegony, as were similar ex- 

 periments in breeding mares to different 

 stallions of the same breed. Ewart states, 

 therefore, that although at the beginning 

 of his experiments he "hoped to prove 

 the fact of telegony," his experiments 

 and observations thoroughly convinced 

 him that there never has been an un- 

 doubted case of telegony, at least in dogs, 

 rabbits and horses. 



This is the testimony of an unwilling 

 witness and is therefore quite convinc- 

 ing. Breeders generally believe that if 

 a mongrel male or one of another breed 

 accidentally impregnates a pure bred 

 female she is forever ruined for purposes 

 of pure breeding. It is now evident that 

 no such fears need be entertained. 



Occasionally one hears the fear ex- 

 pressed that pure bred males may be- 

 come contaminated by serving mongrel 

 females. There is no evidence whatever 

 to support such an idea. 



Prenatal influences — The subject of 

 intra-uterine or prenatal influences has 

 received perhaps an undue amount of 

 consideration. It has long been popu- 



