204 An Examination of Weismanmsm. 



results. Professor Marsh, the distinguished palaeontologist, of 

 Yale, New Haven, who is also collecting evidence, sends 

 a preliminary letter in which he says : — " I do not myself know 

 of such a case, but have heard many statements that make their 

 existence probable. One instance, in Connecticut, is vouched 

 for so strongly by an acquaintance of mine, that I have good 

 reason to believe it to be authentic." 



That cases of the kind should not be frequently seen in the 

 North, especially nowadays, is of course to be expected. The 

 first of the above quotations refers to facts observed in the South 

 during slavery days : and, even then, the implied conditions 

 were naturally very infrequent. Dr. W. J. Youmans of New York 

 has, on my behalf, interviewed several medical professors, who, 

 though they have not themselves met with instances, say that 

 the alleged result, described above. " is generally accepted as 

 a fact." But he gives me what I think must be regarded as 

 authoritative testimony. It is a quotation from the standard 

 work of Professor Austin Flint, and runs as follows : — 



A peculiar and, it seems to me, an inexplicable fact is, that previous 

 pregnancies have an influence upon offspring. This is well known to 

 breeders of animals. If pure-blooded mares or bitches have been once 

 covered by an inferior male, in subsequent fecundations the young are 

 likely to partake of the character of the first male, even if they be after- 

 wards bred with males of unimpeachable pedigree. "What the mechanism 

 of the influence of the first conception is, it is impossible to say : but the 

 fact is incontestable. The same influence is observed in the human 

 subject. A woman may have, by a second husband, children who 

 resemble a former husband, and this is particularly well marked in 

 certain instances by the colour of the hair and eyes A white woman 

 who has had children by a negro may subsequently bear children to 

 a white man, these children presenting some of the unmistakable peculi- 

 arities of the negro race l . 



Dr. Youmans called on Professor Flint, who remembered 

 u investigating the subject at the time his larger work was 

 written [the above is from an abridgment], and said that he 

 had never heard the statement questioned. - ' 



Some days before I received this letter and its contained 



1 "A Text Book of Human Physiology." By Austin Flint, M.D., LL. D. 

 Fourth edition. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1888. Page 797. 



