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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: TAV-THE |
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TELEGONY (Gr. TT/Xe, far, and yovos, offspring) , the name now given to the hypothesis that offspring sometimes inherit characters from a previous mate of their dam. Until recent
W. B. Carpenter, and G. J. Romanes were all more or less firm believers in the doctrine of infection, and that a few years ago, with the exception of Professor A. Weismann, all the leading biologists had either subscribed to the telegony doctrine or admitted that " infection of the germ " was well within the bounds of possibilities. Even Professor Weismann did not deny the possibility of the offspring throwing back to a previous mate. The widespread belief, he admitted, " may be justifiable and founded on fact," but he was careful to add that " only the confirmation of the tradition by methodical investigation, in this case by experiment, could raise telegony to the rank of a fact." In assuming this attitude Professor Weismann decidedly differed from Herbert
Spencer
The importance of determining whether there is such a thing as telegony is sufficiently evident. If a mare or other female animal is liable to be " infected " by her first or by subsequent mates, telegony will rank as a cause of variation, and breeders will be justified in believing (1) that pure-bred females are liable to be " corrupted " when mated with sires of a different breed; and (2) that inferior or cross-bred females, if first mated with a high-class sire, will thereafter produce superior offspring, how-ever inferior or cross-bred her subsequent mates. If, on the other hand, " infection of the germ " is impossible, telegony will not count as a factor in variation, and breeders will no longer be either justified in regarding mares and other female animals as liable to be " corrupted " by ill-assorted unions, or benefited by first having offspring to a high-class, or it may be more vigorous, mate. Though, according to breeders, evidence of telegony has been found in nearly all the different kinds of domestic mammals and birds, most stress has been laid on instances of " infection " in the horse and dog families. Telegony in the Horse Family.Beecher at the end of the 17th century pointed out that " when a mare has had a mule by an ass and afterwards a foal by a horse, there are evident marks on the foal of the mother having retained some ideas of her former paramour, the ass." That mares used in mule breeding are liable to be infected is still widely believed, but irrefragable evidence of the influence of the ass persisting, as Agassiz assumed, is conspicuous by its absence. Darwin says, " It is worth notice that farmers in south Brazil . . . are convinced that mares which have once borne mules when subsequently put to horses are extremely liable to produce colts striped like a mule " (Animals and Plants, vol. i. p. 436). Baron de Parana, on the other hand, says, " I have many relatives and friends who have large establishments for the rearing of mules, where they obtain from 400 to 1000 mules in a year. In all these establishments, after two or three crossings of the mare and ass, the breeders cause the mare to be put to a horse; yet a pure-bred foal has never been produced resembling either an ass or a mule." The prevalence of the belief in telegony at the present day is largely due to a case of supposed infection reported to the Royal Society in 182o by Lord Morton. A chestnut mare, after having a hybrid by a quagga, produced to a black Arabian horse three foals showing a number of stripesin one more stripes were present than in the quagga hybrid. The more, however, the case so intimately associated with the name of Lord Morton is considered,, the less convincing is the evidence it affords in favour of " infection." Stripes are frequently seen in high-caste Arab horses, and cross-bred colts out of Arab mares sometimes present far more distinct bars across the legs and other zebra-like markings than characterized the subsequent offspring of Lord Morton's seven-eighths Arabian mare. In the absence of control experiments there is therefore no reason for assuming Lord Morton's chestnut mare would have produced less striped offspring had she been mated with the black Arabian before giving birth
Indian breeds, in which stripes commonly occur. Darwin and others having regarded Lord Morton's mare as affording very strong evidence in support of the infection hypothesis, it was considered some years ago desirable to repeat Lord Morton's experiment as accurately as possible. The quagga having become extinct, a number of mares were put to a richly striped Burchell zebra, and subsequently bred with Arab, thorough-bred and cross-bred sires. Other mares were used for control experiments. Thirty mares put to a Burchell zebra produced seventeen hybrids, and subsequently twenty pure-bred foals. The mares used for control experiments produced ten pure-bred foals. Unlike Lord Morton's quagga hybrids, all the zebra hybrids were richly, and sometimes very distinctly, striped, some of them having far more stripes than their zebra parent. Of the subsequent foals, three out of Highland mares presented indistinct markings at birth
Shetland
Shetland
Norwegian
Norwegian
Telegony in Dogs.Breeders of dogs are, if possible, more thoroughly convinced of the fact of telegony than breeders of horses. Nevertheless, Sir Everett Millais, a recognized authority, has boldly asserted that after nearly thirty years' experience, during which he made all sorts of experiments, he had never seen a case of telegony. Recent
liver -and-white cocker-spaniel. The pups were spaniel-like in build, and of a brown-and-white colour. Subsequently this terrier had pups to a black-brindled terrier. All the pure-bred pups were typical terriers, and evidence of their dam having escaped infection is the fact that three of them proved noted prize-winners. The subject of the second undesigned experiment was a wire-haired fox-terrier. In this case the first sire was a white Pomeranian, the second a cross-bred Irish terrier. Having had ample opportunity of being " corrupted," the fox-terrier was mated with a prize dog of her own strain. The result was three pups, all in make andmarkings pure terriers, and one of the three was 'regarded as an unusually good specimen of the breed.Experiments with cats, rabbits, mice, with sheep and cattle, with fowls and pigeons, like the experiments with horses and dogs, fail to afford any evidence that offspring inherit any of their characters from previous mates of the dam; i.e. they entirely fail to prove that a female animal is liable to be so influenced by her first mate that, however subsequently mated, the offspring will either in structure or disposition give some hint of the previous mate. In considering telegony it should perhaps be mentioned that some breeders not only believe the dam is liable to be "infected " by the sire, but also that the sire may acquire some of the characteristics of his mates. This belief seems to be especially prevalent amongst breeders of cattle; but how, for example, a long-horned Highland bull , used for crossing with black hornless Galloway cows, could subsequently get Galloway-like calves out of pure Highland heifers it is impossible to imagine.In conclusion, it may be pointed out that it was only natural for breeders and physiologists in bygone days to account for some of their results by the " infection " hypothesis. Even now we know surprisingly little about the causes of variation, and not many years ago it was frequently asserted that there was no such thing as reversion or throwing back to an ancestor. But even were the laws of heredity and variation better under-stood, the fact remains that we know little of the origin of the majority of our domestic animals. On the other hand, from the experiments of Mendel and others, we now know that cross-bred animals and plants may present all the characters of one of their pure-bred parents, and we also know that the offspring of what are regarded as pure-bred parents sometimes revert to remote, it may be quite different, ancestors. The better we understand the laws of heredity and variation, and the more we learn of the history of the germ cells, the less need will there be to seek for explanations from telegony and other like doctrines. (J. C. E.) End of Article: TELEGONY (Gr. TT/Xe, far, and yovos, offspring) If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
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