938 
THE BREEDING OF STOCK. 
the way insect life was propagated, and remarked that it 
would appear as if the same scientific truths which modern 
discoveries had brought to light were believed in without 
such absolute proof years ago ; for Hudibras wrote : 
“ Great fleas have little fleas 
Upon their backs to bite ’em ; 
And little fleas have lesser ones. 
So on, c ad infinitum.’ ” 
cc Like begets like ” is an axiom that cannot be disputed, 
and examples are continually met with, showing how types 
are handed down from father to son, and from generation to 
generation, and yet, as propagation is effected by parents 
very dissimilar from each other, there are causes in operation 
which result quite as much in diversifying the race as in 
handing down the types from one age to another ; so that we 
may be probably correct in saying that no single individual 
is the precise counterpart of one gone before. What then is 
this vital union ? or rather, what is it not ? It is not then a 
merely mechanical union like the combination of spirit and 
water, or the composition of the atmospheric air. It is not 
chemical union which, by the combination of two substances, 
produces a body totally different from either of the ele- 
mentary bodies, such for example as water — the product of 
the combination of two gases, oxygen and hydrogen. Vital 
union is probably partly mechanical and slightly analogous 
to chemical union, but differing materially from either, un- 
doubtedly sui generis. Each parent possesses certain pecu- 
liarities, but by no means in equal proportions, and there are 
no fixed rules enabling us to judge precisely what the effect 
will be of certain combinations, but yet there are certain 
truths, or rules, although abounding with exceptions, which 
careful observation has detected and recorded. Of these the 
first in importance is the influence exercised by either parent 
on the offspring. When the influence of one is greater than 
the other the term prepotency is used to denote the superior 
influence. And although this prepotency may belong to 
either parent, yet in the majority of instances, so far as 
external form goes, it belongs to the male. This is partly 
owing to the fact that the vital functions, the internal frame, 
and the cerebral and nervous systems, w T hich are unseen, 
more frequently follow the female, whilst the more visible 
features, such as the external form, the skin, the back, and 
hind quarters, the size and general shape is generally influ- 
enced by the male parent. Sometimes the very opposite is 
the case, and then the female is said to be prepotent. Ulus- 
