ne half of the body. Thus the back,
loins, hind-quarters, general shape, skin and size follow one parent;
and the fore-quarters, head, vital and nervous system, the other; and
we may go so far as to add, that the former in the great majority of
cases go with the male parent, and the latter with the female. A
corroboration of this fact is found in the common system of putting an
ordinary mare to a thorough-bred horse; not only does the head of the
offspring resemble the dam but the forelegs likewise, and thus it is
fortunately the case that the too-frequently faulty and tottering legs
of the sire are not reproduced in the foal, whilst the full thighs and
hind quarters which belong to the blood-horse are generally given to
the offspring. There is however a minority of cases in which the
opposite result obtains. That size is governed more by the male parent
there is no great difficulty in showing; familiar examples may be
found in the pony-mare and the full sized horse, which considerably
exceed the dam in size. Again, in the first cross between the small
indigenous ewe and the large ram of another improved breed--the
offspring is found to approach in size and shape very much to the ram.
The mule offspring of the mare also much resembles both in size and
appearance its donkey sire. These are familiar examples of the
preponderating influence of the male parent, so far as the external
form is considered. To show however that size and hight do not
invariably follow the male, we need go no further for illustration
than the human subject. How often do we find that in the by no means
unfrequent case of the union of a tall man with a short woman, the
result in some instances is that all the children are tall and in
others all short; or sometimes that some are short and others tall.
Within our own knowledge in one case, where the father was tall and
the mother short, the children, six in number, are all tall. In
another instance, the father being short and the mother tall, the
children, seven in number, are all of lofty stature. In a third
instance, the mother being tall and the father short, the greater
portion of the family are short. Such facts as these are sufficient to
prove that hight or growth does not exclusively follow either the one
parent or the other. Although this is the case, it is also a striking
fact that the union of tall and short parents rarely, if ever,
produces offspring of a medium size--midway, as it were, be