ANCESTRAL INFLUENCE. Ql 



CHAPTER IV. 



Atavism, or Ancestral Influence. 



It may not be easy to say whether this phenomenon 

 is more- connected with the law of similarity, or with 

 that of variation. Youatt, in his work on cattle pub- 

 lished by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowl- 

 edge, inclines to the former. He speaks of it as show- 

 ing the universality of the application of the axiom that 

 "like produces like" — that when this "may not seem 

 to hold good, it is often because the lost resemblance 

 to generations gone by is strongly revived." The phe- 

 nomenon, or law, as it is sometimes called, of atavism,* 

 or ancestral influence, is one of considerable practical 

 importance, and well deserves careful attention by the 

 breeder of farm stock. 



Every one is aware that it is nothing unusual for a 

 child to resemble its grandfather or grandmother or 

 some ancestor still farther back, more than it does either 

 its own father or mother. The fact is too familiar to 

 require the citing of examples. We find the same oc- 



* From the Latin Atavus — meaning any ancestor indefinitely, as a 

 grandmother's great grandfather. 



