196 An Examination of Weismannism. 



obtained the volume, and there found what I expected. It 

 was contained in a paper communicated by Dr. Wollaston from 

 Daniel Giles, Esq., concerning his " sow and her produce," which 

 said that 



she was one of a well-known black and white breed of Mr, "Western, 

 the Member for Essex. About ten years since I put her to a boar of the 

 wild breed, and of a deep chestnut colour, which I had just received 

 from Hatfield House, and which was soon afterwards drowned by 

 accident. The pigs produced (which were her first litter) partook in 

 appearance of both boar and sow, but in some the chestnut colour of the 

 boar strongly prevailed. 



The sow was afterwards put to a boar of Mr. Western's breed (the 

 wild boar having been long dead). The produce was a litter of pigs 

 some of which, we observed with much surprise, to be stained and 

 clearly marked with the chestnut colour which had prevailed in the 

 former litter. 



Mr. Giles adds that in a second litter of pigs, the father of which 

 was of Mr. Western's breed, he and his bailiff believe there was 

 a recurrence, in some, of the chestnut colour, but admits that 

 their " recollection is much less perfect than I wish it to be." 

 He also adds that, in the course of many years' experience, he 

 had never known the least appearance of the chestnut colour in 

 Mr. Western's breed. 



What are the probabilities that these two anomalous results 

 should have arisen, under these exceptional conditions, as 

 a matter of chance? Evidently the probabilities against such 

 a coincidence are enormous. The testimony is in both cases 

 so good that, even apart from the coincidence, it would be 

 unreasonable to reject it ; but the coincidence makes accept- 

 ance of it imperative. There is mutual verification, at the 

 same time that there is a joint interpretation yielded of the 

 strange phenomenon, and of its non-occurrence under ordinary 

 circumstances. 



And now, in the presence of these facts, what are we to say ? 

 Simply that they are fatal to Weismann's hypothesis. They 

 show that there is none of the alleged independence of the 

 reproductive cells ; but that the two sets of cells are in close 

 communion. They prove that while the reproductive cells 

 multiply and arrange themselves during the evolution of the 



