CHAPTER NII. 
HOW THE OFFSPRING COMPARES WITH THE PARENT, OR 
DESCENT WITH MODIFICATION 
The complex nature of heredity - The offspring not like the parent. 
Mediocrity the common lot, whatever the parentage; regression - Some 
offspring better and some worse than their parents: The exceptional par- 
ent and his offspring . Progression - The exceptional offspring and his 
parent - Reversion - Degeneracy 
Though the general process of improvement by selection is 
simple enough, certain additional facts and principles are in- 
volved with which the breeder needs to be acquainted in order 
to make the selection to the best advantage. 
The complex nature of heredity. The most disconcerting 
principle in all improvement operations lies back of the obvious 
fact that the offspring is not like the parent. Having, as he 
nearly always does, two parents, he could not of course be like 
them both. The fact is, however, that for the most part he is 
not like either one of them, nor yet is he like the two combined. 
The most that can be said is that the offspring resenrbles his 
parents, and that all his characters are to be found somewhere 
in his parentage. 
This all means that transmission is more a matter of family 
or general ancestral influence than it is of the two particular 
individuals that happen to be the immediate parents. 
It has already been stated that every individual, whatever his 
personality, transmits all the characters of the race or family 
to which he belongs, and no others. Some of these characters 
may not be evident in his own make-up, but if they are in the 
blood of the family, they will be transmitted. 
All this is not saying that all characters will be transmitted 
with the same intensity nor with the same probability of being 
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