501 
CASES OF COITION IN A MARE AFTER 
IMPREGNATION. 
By Mr. J. M. Hales, F.S., Oswestry . 
In the June number of The Veterinarian, there is a case 
of “ Coition after Impregnation,” reported by Mr. King, and 
which he considers to be an extraordinary circumstance, he 
having never before met with a well-authenticated case of it. It 
was my intention at the time to have stated that such facts had 
come under my observation, but various circumstances have de- 
layed my doing so until now. 
Three instances in which the male has been admitted by the 
mare after impregnation are now fresh in my memory, which 
will probably be sufficient to shew that it is not so extraordinary 
as it might appear to Mr. King to be. 
The first case was a very favourite mare of my own, which I 
had used as a hack for several years, until continual battering 
on the road had worn out her fore legs. Being anxious to have 
a foal from her, she was put to the horse in the middle of April, 
and took him regularly every fortnight to the end of the season. 
Then, despairing of any produce, I gave her to a friend, with this 
condition, that, should she turn out to be pregnant by the horse 
to wffiich I had sent her, the produce should be mine. As she 
still continued to be horsing, the gentleman who now had her 
allowed her to be covered at several different times by a half-bred 
horse in his neighbourhood. Finding this of no avail, and being 
determined to have something out her if possible, she was submit- 
ted to a male ass. 
In process of time, it became evident that the mare was in 
foal, and a question arose between my friend and myself, as to 
which of us the produce would belong ; and we settled it in this 
manner, that, if the foal came to the time that it could be con- 
sidered the legitimate progeny of the horse I had sent the mare 
to, it was to be mine ; but if it came to that of the second horse, 
it was to be his. If she brought forth a mule, my claim was 
clearly destroyed. She, however, dropped a colt in the begin- 
ning of the following April, as near as may be eleven months 
from the second time she had the horse, and so like him, that 
no one could doubt the paternity. The period when this mare 
was covered by the donkey must have been in August, and at 
least three months after impregnation had taken place. 
The second instance to which I allude was this : — a gentleman, 
at that time a resident in Oswestry, had a mare that he had 
hacked, hunted, and raced, and was desirous to breed from ; he, 
