TBLEGONY, WITH OBSERVATIONS ON THE 

 STRIPING OF ZEBRAS AND HORSES, 

 AND ON REVERSION IN THE EQUID^. 



Introductoet. 



Of the still surviving ancient and widespi-ead beliefs, 

 one of the most suggestive and interesting to students of 

 nature is the belief that parents hand on to their offspring 

 some of the peculiarities acquired during their lifetime ; in 

 other words, that acquired characters or modifications — 

 characters not due to heredity — may be transmitted. This 

 is a tradition likely long to withstand the scotchings of 

 science, even should it, like so many other traditions, be 

 eventually found to rest on foundations of sand. The 

 transmission dogma may be said to consist of three main 

 stems or trunks, which are often associated with, and may 

 be named after, the patriarch Jacob, Lamarck, aud Lord 

 Morton ; the heads borne by these trunks are, however, in 

 the meantime best left unnumbered and unnamed. 



The Jacobean Trunk. — I have frequently heard of Aber- 

 deenshire farmers who acted as if they believed that were 

 peeled rods of hazel, poplar, or chestnut placed before their 

 cattle they would bring forth young "ring-straked, speckled 

 and spotted." Amongst shepherds the belief is preva- 

 lent that if a single black ewe is allowed in the autumn to 

 run with a flock of white ones, however perfect their 

 pedigree, a considerable percentage of the next crop of 

 lambs will be black. Whether the methods at times practised 

 by breeders in various parts of Scotland to secure a desired 

 end are the result of observation and experiment, or are due 

 to a Boer-like faith in the teaching of the Old Testament, lam 

 unable to say. But assuredly breeders of Aberdeen- Angus 

 cattle have not been singular in believing in the power of 



