rovement, and the only proceeding by which stock
already good can be preserved in excellence.

Mon. Giron[17] expresses the opinion that the relative age and vigor
of the parents exercises very considerable influence, and states as
the results of his observation, that the offspring of an old male and
a young female resembles the father less than the mother in
proportion as the mother is more vigorous and the father more
decrepit, and that the reverse occurs with the offspring of an old
female and a young male.

Among the more recent theories or hypotheses which have been started
regarding the relative influence of the male and female parents, those
of Mr. Orton, presented in a paper read before the Farmers' Club at
Newcastle upon Tyne, on the Physiology of Breeding, and of Mr. Walker
in his work on Intermarriage, as they both arrived to a certain
extent, at substantially the same conclusions by independent
observations of their own and as these seem to agree most nearly with
the majority of observed facts, are deemed worthy of favorable
mention.

The conclusions of Mr. Orton, briefly stated,[18] are, that in the
progeny there is no casual or haphazard blending of the parts or
qualities of the two parents, but rather that organization is
transmitted by halves, or that each parent contributes to the
formation of certain structures, and to the development of certain
qualities. Advancing a step further, he maintains, that the male
parent chiefly determines the external characters, the general
appearance, in fact, the outward structure and locomotive powers of
the offspring, as the framework, or bones and muscles, more
particularly those of the limbs, the organs of sense and skin; while
the female parent chiefly determines the internal structures and the
general quality, mainly furnishing the vital organs, i.e., the heart,
lungs, glands and digestive organs, and giving tone and character to
the vital functions of secretion, nutrition and growth. "Not however
that the male is without influence on the internal organs and vital
functions, or the female without influence on the external organs and
locomotive powers of their offspring. The law holds only within
certain restrictions, and these form as it were a secondary law, one
of limitations, and scarcely less important to be understood than the
fundamental law itself."

Mr. Orton relies chiefly on the evidence presented by _hybrids_, the
progeny of distinct species, or b