Progeny 69 



idiotic, or with some other deficiency in its structure, 

 renders its mother Hable to further bearing children 

 of this character. Here we have an instance of 

 malformation and defect, the result of a toxic prod- 

 uct of an infecting agent of a bacterial nature, but 

 Dr. Mills, I am certain, will not go so far as to 

 assert that the variation of the parents amounts to 

 variation in type ; that is to say. Dr. Mills will not 

 assert that the infecting agent will affect the mother 

 so seriously as to cause her, a European, to give 

 birth to a negro or a child of Tartar type. 



"If it were possible for the foetus of the first sire 

 to infect the system of the dam so as to cause her 

 to reproduce at a future pregnancy to another sire, 

 animals of the first sire's type, the variation must 

 be accounted for by some agent which causes varia- 

 tion in the ova of the dam long before her access 

 to the second sire, and this being the case, it is evi- 

 dent that it is the ovary that is at fault. But we 

 have to remember that it is the male that gives type 

 to the offspring, and the type in the phenomenon 

 being that of the previous sire and not the putative 

 parent, we can only come to the conclusion that the 

 first sire in some way has a finger in the pie, or 

 accept the hitherto unmentioned and impossible 

 doctrine that the unborn foetus of the second sire 

 is sired by the foetus of the first. 



