Heredity and Sexuality. 
459 
parent, or from both parents. Thirty years' observation has con- 
vinced M. Kiener that the milking propensity, for example, is quite 
as transmissible through the male as through the female line, and, 
in view of the large number of offspring of one bull as compared 
•with those of one cow, he argues that the milking aptitude is 
preferably propagated through the male. He adds that bulls of 
good dairy character are distinguished by the possession of fairly 
developed teats. 
Ancestral influence is undeniable, though under what combina- 
tion of circumstances it is most likely to manifest itself it is difficult 
to say. The influence of the male in close in-and-in breeding is of 
the highest importance. A pure-bred Dutch cow threw two con- 
secutive calves to her own male offspring, the result of an alliance 
with a Swiss-Dutch cross-bred bull. Possessing three-fourths of the 
blood of their dam, they might have been expected to resemble her, 
but did not. Though the two calves differed from each other, yet 
each exhibited strongly certain characteristics of their sire (and 
brother). An almost pure-bred St. Hubert bitch, covered by a 
grey-and-black mastiff, gave birth to a dog with hair like that of his 
sire. Allied to his dam, this dog produced a son, which was also his 
brother, and which had the same kind of coat as his sire, though 
rather more resemblance to his dam, who was at the same time his 
grand-dam. But what is most surprising is that this last-named 
offspring, allied to the bitch who was his dam and grand-dam, 
produced eight dogs, four of which were grey and four black. From 
the very strong preponderance of the maternal blood, it would hardly 
have been surprising if these eight puppies had borne a greater resem- 
blance to their dam. In March last these eight dogs were a year 
old and were in good health, and it remains to be seen whether they 
will prove as good in the chace as their mother and their brothers, 
the latter being also their sire and grandsire respectively. 
For the transmission of hereditary disease it is not necessary 
that more than one of the parents should be the medium. A case 
is mentioned of a stallion carrying a small bony tumour on the jaw ; 
many of his offspring were similarly affected. The transmission of 
spavin from the stallion or from the mare is also instanced. 
The experiences and observations of many years have led M. 
Kiener to the conclusion that it will never come within the capacity of 
the breeder to control the sex of the offspring. The age of the parents 
appears to exercise no influence upon the sex, and as from old 
females — mares, cows, she-goats — allied always to males in full 
vigour, M. Kiener has obtained a much larger number of female 
than of male offspring, he considers that the more robust parent 
does not necessarily determine the sex. 
Professor Ch. Cornevin, of the Veterinary School at Lyons, deals 
with a closely allied subject in a paper " Contribution a l'Etude du 
De"terminisme de la Sexualite." The progress of the study of embry- 
ology has placed beyond doubt the circumstance that in the animal 
kingdom, the bisexual or hermaphrodite condition is the usual and 
primitive state, the unisexual condition being the result of the 
