14 BULLETIN 905, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Thus in many respects the breeder should act much as if acquired 
characteristics were inherited. On the other hand, it is important to 
know that it is hopeless to attempt to improve scrub stock merely by 
giving it the best of care for any number of generations. 
Probably the strongest reason for the common belief in the inherit- 
ance of acquired characteristics is that to many it seems impossible 
to account for progress in any other way. To this it may be said that 
while the hereditary qualities of the reproductive cells do not seem 
to be influenced by changes in the individual, they are not unchange- 
able. Variations occur from time to time, apparently at random. 
By the methods discussed later these variations may be combined 
in desirable ways and fixed in a stock. 
TELEGONY. 
It was widely believed at one time that after a female has borne 
young, sired by a certain male, her later offspring, sired by other 
males, will show characteristics derived from the first — a supposed 
phenomenon which has been called telegony. Such an influence 
could come only from a modification of the egg cells of the female by 
influences from the first offspring before birth, and so come under the 
head of the inheritance of acquired characteristics. It is even more 
improbable, however, as the influence of the first male must neces- 
sarily be very indirect. The most widely quoted example of this 
sort of influence was a case in which a mare was mated with a zebra, 
producing a hybrid, and later, after mating with a horse, produced 
a colt which had certain markings which resembled those of a zebra. 
This, however, was merely an isolated case. A considerable number 
of attempts have been made to confirm it, but with no success. The 
most extensive experiments were those of J. Cossar Ewart, likewise 
with zebras and mares. He could find no effects which could be 
ascribed to telegony. There was, indeed, one case in which a mare 
produced a colt with vestiges of stripes after having produced a 
hybrid. It was found, however, that the sire of this colt, an Arab, 
produced similarly striped colts from mares which had never seen a 
zebra. 
Similar experiments with zebra crosses, also with negative results, 
have been earned on by the Bureau of Animal Industry. F. B. 
Mumford and C. B. Hutchinson made an investigation of the ques- 
tion in the mule-breeding district of Missouri. Many cases were 
found in which mares bore mule and horse colts successively, but no 
evidence could be found for telegony. The theory is now considered 
to be thoroughly discredited and is evidently one which need give 
the practical breeder no concern. 
