On the fœtus in utero as inoculating the maternal with the peculariarities of the paternal organism, and on mental stakes in either parent as influencing the nutrition and development of the offspring / by Alexander Harvey.

  • Harvey, Alexander, 1811-1889.
Date:
1850
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the fœtus in utero as inoculating the maternal with the peculariarities of the paternal organism, and on mental stakes in either parent as influencing the nutrition and development of the offspring / by Alexander Harvey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    spring very exactly to resemble an individual not its father. Of this the following is, perhaps, an instance :— A young married woman, residing in Aberdeen, between whom and a young man a strong attachment and a matrimonial engagement had long existed, but who were never married, and never had sexual intercourse together, gave birth to a child, which bore so striking a resemblance in its features to the woman’s first lover, as to attract the notice of herself and many others of the acquaint¬ ance of the parties. In this case—communicated to me by Mr Robert M. Erskine, surgeon, here, who was well acquainted with the individuals con¬ cerned, and had personally satisfied himself of the accuracy of the facts -—the resemblance may have existed only in the imagination of the observers, or been magnified through the love of the marvellous,— and, giving it as given to myself, I adduce it merely as a possible example of what may be a real occurrence, and would contrast re¬ markably with the observation alluded to by Dr Allen Thomson,— viz., u that the human female, when twice married, bears occasion¬ ally to the second husband children resembling the first, both in bodily structure and mental powers,”—and also with the cases given as instances of this, in the Appendix to my former paper. It appears that many breeders of stock are impressed with the belief, that certain colours present to the eye of the parent animals, and particularly of the female, at the time and in the act of their being coupled together,—and to the eye of the female both before and during her pregnancy, influence the colour of the progeny ; and that they make this belief a practical principle of action in the breeding of their stock, in order either to prevent or to secure the admixture of any particular colour in the offspring different from that of the parent animals. “ We know,” says an anonymous writer, “ a great breeder of pure Angus stock [black polled breed], who makes it a rule to have every animal about his farm of a black colour, down to the very poultry.” 1 And an eminent breeder of the same stock in this county informs me, that he extends this rule to the steadings in which his cattle are kept. To illustrate generally the grounds of this belief and practice, the following cases may be cited :— (a) A black polled [Angus] cow, belonging to Mr Mustard, a farmer in For¬ farshire, came into season while pasturing in a field bounded by that of a neighbouring farmer. Out of this last there jumped into the other field an ox, of a white colour, with black spots, and horned, which went with the cow till she was brought to the bull,—an animal of the same colour and breed as herself. Mr Mustard had not a horned animal in his possession, nor any with the least white on it; and yet the produce of this (black and polled) cow and bull was a black-and-white calf, with horns.2 1 “ North of Scotland Gazette ” newspaper, for July 17, 1849. 2 Library of Society of Useful Knowledge, volume on Cattle, p. 171.—This seems to be the same case as that given by Dr Allen Thomson, in Cyc. Anat. and Phys., art. “ Generation,” vol. ii., p. 474.