PHENOMENA OF INHERITANCE 215 



In other cases the traits of the parents ap- 

 pear to blend in the offspring, as for example, 

 in the skin color of mulattoes ; such cases were 

 called by Galton "blending" inheritance (Fig. 

 45). Sometimes characters appear in off- 

 spring which were "latent" in the parents but 

 were "patent" in one or more of the grand-s 

 parents ; such skipping of a generation, during 

 which a character remains "latent," has long 

 been known as "atavism." At other times 

 characters which were present in distant ances- 

 tors, but which have since dropped out of 

 sight or have remained "latent," reappear in 

 descendants; such cases are known as 

 "reversions." 



In still other cases certain characters ap- 

 pear only in the male sex, others only in the 

 female, this being called "sex-limited" inheri- 

 tance; while in some instances characters are 

 transmitted from fathers through daughters 

 to grandsons or from mothers to sons, all such 

 cases being known as "sex-linked" inheritance. 



2. New Characters or Mutations. — But in 

 addition to these permutations in the distri- 

 bution and combination of ancestral characters 



