SOME BELIEFS OF PRACTICAL BREEDERS ay 
breeder to whom the attention of this instance was called remarked that, 
although the color of this litter was strongly reminiscent of the white fox 
terrier, the form and general characteristics were otherwise those of pure 
Dachshunds. Accordingly he traced the pedigree of the dam and found 
that in the sixth generation it ran back to the kennel of a lady whose 
hobby was white Dachshunds with tan cheeks and ears. This particular 
mating had simply given opportunity for the expression of latent factors 
carried by the tan dogs. It was a perfectly intelligible case of rever- 
sion, not telegony at all. 
Harmfui Effects of Hybridization.—Although we cannot accept the 
belief in telegony, we must admit that bearing hybrid offspring may 
sometimes have detrimental effects upon the dam. Thus Ewart quoting 
from Baron de Parana calls attention to the practice in Brazil of breeders 
of mules putting their mares to horses after they have reared two or 
three mules in order to prevent them from becoming sterile. There is 
a possibility that a hybrid fetus in consequence of its unusual vigor 
may tax more strongly the resources of the dam and in a sense impoverish 
her. This is particularly the case in some hybrids like those between the 
bison and domestic cattle, the production of which is a tremendous 
drain upon the dam’s system and often leads to fatal consequences. 
But this is not telegony, it is merely a consequence of disturbing the 
physiological balance in the dam, and has nothing whatever to do with 
the transference of the characters of a previous sire to offspring borne 
subsequently to the service of another sire. 
Infection of the Male.—The belief in infection of the male is by no 
means as strong as that in telegony, but occasionally it is met with. 
Ewart recites an incident of a breeder who refused to allow his Jersey 
bull to serve Shetland cows for fear that the bull would subsequently 
carry over old Shetland traits into his Jersey herd. Since we have, 
however, discarded telegony as applied to the female, there appears to 
be no warrant whatever for considering it in the male, where an effective 
mechanism of operation is even less conceivable. Moreover, a vast 
amount of evidence which has been obtained in Mendelian experiments 
leaves no room whatever for this belief. 
Saturation.—The doctrine of saturation is fundamentally based 
upon a belief in the cumulative effect of telegony. It holds that succes- 
sive children of given parents come to resemble the sire more and more 
in their characters. Although this doctrine has been accorded some im- 
portance at times, like the doctrine of telegony it finds no support from 
experimental evidence. Here again we may point to the evidence from 
Mendelian experiments, collected for another purpose, it is true, but 
yielding direct evidence in opposition to the belief in saturation. More- 
over, Pearson has collected statistical evidence in human beings with 
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