76 BihUograi'hical Notice. 



the zebra, and warts are deficient on the hind legs; the mane is 

 short and upright in summer, long and pendent in winter. This 

 fourth hybrid (" JN^orelte ") has been more intelligent than the others 

 and quieter in disposition ; her appearance is quaint, with an old- 

 fashioned bygone-age look. 



The filth hybiid (" Heckla"') is the produce of a skewbald Iceland 

 pony. Ihe dam has much white about her, and with a pale 

 yellow body-tint. Tb.e experimenter expected the female offspring 

 would be nearlj' as light in body-tint as the mule Burcheirs zebra 

 parent; but, instead, this foal is the darkest of all the zebrine 

 hybrids. Her coat is heavy, though she agrees in the main in 

 build and markings with no. 1 hybrid (" Ivouiulus "'). Her action 

 is freer, though more like that of a hackney tlian a zebra. 



Scmo of the above dams were afterwards put to horses, and 

 this second progeny receives full description from the author, part 

 of which is referred to under telegony. The above five hybrids and 

 other cross-breeds, along with further experiments on jugeons, 

 fowls, rabbits, ai]d dogs by the author, and references and com^ 

 parisons with the labours of others in the field of hybrid produce, 

 foim the basis of the general introduction and of the cliapter more 

 particularly devoted to Telegony and lleversion among the Equidce. 



We need hardly make special reference to the chapter on " The 

 Principles of Ereeding " in the General Intioduction, as some of the 

 data again crop up when the transmission of characters is discusse(\ 

 We may note en passant that in allusion to the third-week cmbryotio 

 condition of the horse, when it becomes a bent- double fish-like 

 creature, he says " the tail is bilobed like that of a mermaid, 

 manatee"' — surely a slip of the pen for (iugong ? (see Eyder, Develop, 

 of Cetacea, Rep. U.S. Fisheries for 1885). 



With regard to the fascinating doctrine of Infection of the Germ- 

 plasm — Weismann's Telegony — Prof. Ewart speaks pretty strongly 

 from his own experiments and others' investigation of the subject. 

 He says : — " The result, so far, is that the evidence in support of 

 undoubted ' infection ' having even occurred is most unsatisfactory. 

 In every case investigated the supposed infection could be accounted 



for by the relatively simple reversion hypothesis I do not 



by any means say telegony is impossible, that it never has occurred 

 in the past and never will occur in the future ; but I think I am 

 justified in saying ' infection ' has never been experimentally pro- 

 duced, and that the kind of ' infection ' so widely believed in by 

 breeders, if not impossible, is at least extremely improbable." He 

 goes on to mention the oft-quoted Lord Morton's mare, which 

 Ewart does not believe Avas infected by the quagga, and he gives 

 figures and argument thereon. 



Ewart further refers to his own experiments, and describes foals 

 subsequently got from the several dams (supra) by horses after 

 their having had foals by Burcheil's zebra. These did not support 

 the telegony hypothesis. As a climax he says, " I am now satisfied 

 that [ordinary] foals are far more often marked with stripes — > 

 apparent or real — than is generally supposed." 



