Chap. XIV. 



PREPOTENCY OF TRANSMISSION. 



65 



Prepotency in the Transmission of Character. 



When individuals distinct enough to be recognised but of 

 the same family, or when two well-marked races, or two 

 species, are crossed, the usual result, as stated in the previous 

 chapter, is, that the offspring in the first generation are inter- 

 mediate between their parents, or resemble one parent in one 

 part and the other parent in another part. But this is by 

 no means the invariable rule ; for in many cases it is found 

 that certain individuals, races, and species, are prepotent in 

 transmitting their likeness. This subject has been ably discussed 

 by Prosper Lucas, 2 but is rendered extremely complicated by 

 the prepotency sometimes running equally in both sexes, and 

 sometimes more strongly in one sex than in the other; 'it is 

 likewise complicated by the presence of secondary sexual cha- 

 racters, which render the comparison of mongrels with their 

 parent-breeds difficult. 



It would appear that in certain families some one ancestor, 

 and after him others in the same family, must have had great 

 power m transmitting their likeness through the male line • 

 for we cannot otherwise understand how the same features 

 should so often be transmitted after marriages with various 

 females as has been the case with the Austrian Emperors, and 

 «ordmg to Nmbuhr, formerly occurred in certain Roman 



Is tiie ^ ^ men , taI qUaIitie&3 The famous bul1 F -°»rite 

 » behaved to have had a prepotent influence on the short- 



IT Zt- 1° beCn ° bSCTVed5 with E "g Ml race-horses 



cter wbi n t T eS TC generallj ' trat ^itted their own cha- 



cWtlS „ mar6S ° f e<1UaU y P" re bl00d haTO flowed the 



character of the sire to prevail. 



cell^ out more clearly when 



that the breed LomT^v-^ "T™* 1 Shorthom ^ notwithstanding 



^^t^^T^Z^^^ ge « acknowledged to 



it is chiefly in conseoueZ r + ^ S " llWsS ° n a11 other breeds ' ^ 

 consequence of this power that they are so highly valued 



120. 



3 H 



'Hered. Nat.' torn. 



»• PP. 112- 



ir H. Holland, ' Chapters on Mental 



Physiology,' 185 

 VOL. II. 



P. 



4 ' Gardener's Chronicle,' 1860, p. 270. 



5 Mr. N. H. Smith, Observations on 

 Breeding, quoted in < Encyclop. of Rural 



Sports,' p. 278. 



P 



