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先父遗传

先父遗传、间接遗传，英文拼写“telegony”，指一种认为后代能继承父母双方中一方的前任伴侣的特征的学说。先父遗传已在二十世纪初被James C. Ewart、Karl Pearson以及德国和巴西的科学家们实验得到的大量的反例以及现代的遗传学成果证明不真实。

名词简介

先父遗传(telegony)早先是已被科学界证明的不科学的假说，是源自远古希腊神话故事的联想与猜测，在达尔文时期也没有出现现代基因学，不能解释某些现象，该学说一度让人相信。魏斯曼

基础知识

1、遗传物质

人类遗传物质是脱氧核糖核酸（DNA），由脱氧核糖核苷酸聚合而成。它只存在于细胞的细胞核和线粒体中。

2、核糖体

直径：170——230埃；形状：小颗粒；结构: 由2个近于半球形而大小不等的亚单位结合而成。是一种无膜包被的细胞器。两亚单位间留有一条坑道，容纳信使RNA、转移RNA和其它因子。常几个到几十个核蛋白体和MRNA长链结合形成念珠状的复合体称为多聚核糖核蛋白体；成分：核糖核酸（RNA）60% ，蛋白质 40% ；功能：蛋白质的合成中心。

3、RNA

核糖核酸，人体内的RNA有三种，一种是转运RNA，一种是信使RNA,一种是核糖体RNA。其中核糖体RNA是构成核糖体的部分，转运RNA和信使RNA不能直接作为遗传物质，而只能翻译DNA上的遗传信息。

4、性激素

男性睾丸分泌以睾丸酮为主的雄性激素，卵巢分泌以雌二醇为主的雌激素和以孕酮为主的孕激素，以及少量睾丸酮。这些性激素均为类固醇激素，与脂肪属同类物质。其主要功能是刺激付性器官的发育和第二性征的出现，维持正常性欲和生殖能力。性激素只存在于血液中，精液中没有，相反，精液中含有大量葡萄糖，目的是为精子运动提供能量。

5、性细胞

即生殖细胞(配子)。性细胞内的染色体是单倍数(n)的。人有23对染色体，而精子和卵细胞中各有23条。

6.性状表现

单纯的DNA并不能表现出性状，而是需要转运RNA将此DNA上的遗传密码“转录”下来，以三个核苷酸分子决定一个氨基酸的形式，在核糖体里通过脱水缩合形成蛋白质。孤立的DNA碎片会被迅速分解成脱氧核糖核苷酸，而不会被表现出性状。

7.染色体变异

染色体数目增加，减少，结构变化后在后代性状上表现出来的变异。基因突变和染色体变异在绝大多数情况下都会导致后代死亡或畸形。

Telegony is a theory in heredity, now discredited but widely believed until the late 19th century, holding that offspring can inherit the characteristics of a previous mate of one or both parents. thus the child of a widowed or remarried woman might partake of traits of a previous husband. This was part of the resistance to the marriage in 1361 of Edward the Black Prince, heir to the throne of Edward III of England, with Joan, the "Fair Maid of Kent", who had been previously married: their progeny, it was thought, might not be completely of his Plantagenet blood. The theory, expounded as natural history by Aristotle, was accepted throughout Antiquity and revived with the rediscovery of Aristotle in the Middle Ages. Both Schopenhauer and Herbert Spencer found telegony to be a creditable theory;[1] it was only conclusively proved wrong with modern understanding of genetics. The concept of telegonic impregnation was expressed in Greek mythology in the origins of Greek heroes. Such double fatherhood, one father immortal, one mortal, was a familiar feature of Greek heroes like Theseus, who had a human and a divine father, doubly conceived in the same night. By the understanding of sex in antiquity, the mix of semen gave Theseus a combination of divine as well as mortal characteristics; this explained the hero''s more-than-human nature. Sometimes in Greek myth the result could be twins, one born divine of a divine father, the other human of a human sire: see Dioscuri. Of a supposed Parnassos, founder of Delphi, Pausanias[2] observes, "Like the other heroes, as they are called, he had two fathers; one they say was the god Poseidon, the human father being Cleopompus."

先父遗传理论（中）

先父遗传是一种遗传上的理论，现今已被质疑，但是直到19世纪晚期，它还广泛地被相信和接受。这个理论是说，后代能继承父母双方中一方的前任伴侣的特征，因此寡妇或再婚女人的子女会有她们前任丈夫的部分特征。这是1361年反对“黑太子”爱德华的婚姻的部分理由。爱德华三世的继承人，和琼——“美丽的肯特郡少女”——结婚了，而琼是曾经结过婚的。他们的后代，被认为不完全具有金雀花王朝的血统。这个理论被亚里士多德当作自然科学作了解释。亚里士多德相信这个理论，而在中世纪对亚里士多德的再认识中，这个理论又复苏了。叔本华和赫伯特.斯宾塞两人都认为先父遗传是可信的，然而它却被现代基因理论确凿证明是错误的。先父遗传的思想来源于古希腊神话中关于希腊英雄的血统问题。那些同时有一个不朽的父亲和凡人父亲的人，象特修斯一样，一个天神和一个凡人各占一半。由于古代对性的了解，制造特修斯的精液是由来自神的和来自人类的精液的混合体，这就解释了英雄异于常人的地方。有时希腊神话中类似的故事会产生一对双胞胎，一个是神，一个是人，就象“友爱”双神狄俄斯枯里一样。依照帕那萨斯——特尔费的建立者——的假设，帕萨尼亚斯这样写：“象其他的英雄一样，他们被称为有两个父亲，一个是海神波塞冬，另一个是人类父亲克里奥滂浦斯。”

代表人群（英）

The Gnostic followers of Valentinius characteristically took the concept from the physiological world into the realm of psychology and spirituality by extending the influence even to the thoughts of the woman. In the Gospel of Philip, a text among those found at Nag Hammadi:

Whomever the woman loves, to him those who are born are like; if her husband, they are like her husband; if an adulterer, they are like the adulterer. Often when a woman sleeps with her husband, but while her heart is with the adulterer with whom she is accustomed to unite, she bears the one whom she bears so that he is like the adulterer."[3]

代表人群（中）

瓦伦廷的诺斯替教徒是将生理学和灵性结合起来的最有代表性的一群人。在菲利普福音书中，这些人在拿哈玛地文集里发现了这样一段话：

谁人得女爱，其子类谁人。女人爱夫君，其子似夫君。倘若爱奸夫，子亦肖其姘。若与夫交接，心念常邪淫，其子女所生，亦必似通奸。

马的例子（英）

In the nineteenth century, the most widely credited example was that of Lord Morton’s mare, reported by the distinguished surgeon Sir Everard Home, and cited by Charles Darwin.[4] Lord Morton bred a white mare with a wild quagga stallion,[5] and when he later bred the same mare with a white stallion, the offspring strangely had stripes in the legs, like the quagga.

马的例子（中）

在19世纪时期，被引用最多的例子来自Lord Morton的母马，是被外科医生Everard所发现的，后来又被达尔文引证。Lord Morton把一匹白色母马和一匹种斑马交配，而后他又将同样一匹母马与一匹白色种马交配，它们的后代奇怪地在四条腿上带有条纹，就象那匹斑马。

质疑和证据（英）

Although August Weismann had expressed doubts about the theory earlier, it did not fall out of scientific favor until the 1890s, when a series of experiments by James Cossar Ewart in Scotland and other researchers in Germany and Brazil failed to find any evidence of the phenomenon. The result obtained by Morton could probably be caused by the display in the offspring of the recessive genes inherited by the Morton''s mare from her parents/grandparents.

质疑和证据（中）

虽然August Weismann早先对这个理论表示怀疑，但直到19世纪90年代，这理论仍然没被科学推翻，直到 James Cossar Ewart 在苏格兰及其他一系列研究者在德国和巴西所做的一系列实验，都未发现有关现象的证据。Morton所观察到的现象可以被解释为后代从它的父母/祖父母身上继承了隐性基因，并表现出性状。

哺乳动物的遗传（英）

In mammals, each sperm has the haploid set of chromosomes and each egg has another haploid set. During the process of fertilization a zygote with the diploid set is produced. This set will be inherited by every somatic cell of a mammal, with exactly half the genetic material coming from the producer of the sperm (the father) and another half from the producer of the egg (the mother, obviously). Thus, the myth of telegony is fundamentally incompatible with our knowledge of genetics and the reproductive process.

哺乳动物的遗传（中）

对于哺乳动物来说，每个精细胞都携带着构成后代的一半染色体（单倍体》，卵细胞则携带另外一半。通过受精作用使受精卵形成一个二倍体。二倍体会遗传父母双方每个体细胞的一半基因组，通过精子（来自父亲）和卵细胞（来自母亲，显然）。因此，，先父遗传的神话根本不能与当代遗传学说的知识和生殖过程相容。

先父遗传存在示例（英）

Still, the belief in telegony persists among some politically marginal groups, such as White supremacists in the Western world, as well as some other racists and/or religious fundamentalists, e. g., in Russia and other ex-USSR countries. For example, some White supremacists may argue that if a white woman has sex with an African-American man and produces a child of mixed parentage, then subsequently has sex with a white man, the second child will also be born with African-American physical characteristics.

先父遗传存在示例（中）

对先父遗传的信奉仍然存在于一些政治边缘团体中，如西方的白人至上主义，以及其它一些，比如存在于俄罗斯和其它前苏联国家中的种族主义和原教旨主义。例如，一些白人至上主义者们认为如果一个白种女子先和美国黑人性交后生下混血儿，然后再与白种男子性交，之后生下的小孩将具有美国黑人的身体特征。

理论歪曲（英）

Nevertheless, telegony influenced late nineteenth-century racialist discourse: a woman who had once had a child with a non-Aryan man, it was argued, could never have a "pure" Aryan child again. This idea was adopted by the Nazis.[6]

理论歪曲（中）

然而，先父遗传的理论在19实际晚期曾被种族主义者大肆宣说：如果一个女人有了一个非雅利安人种的孩子，她就永远不可能在生出“纯种”的雅利安孩子来了。这个思想曾被纳粹所接受。

来自《柳叶刀》

The Lancet. 2002, Volume 359, Issue 9313, Pages 1256-1256.

《柳叶刀》2002年，第359卷，9313期，1256页

B. Bynum.

==============================================================================================

Discarded diagnoses - telegony

被废弃的诊断——先父遗传

In 1820, the Earl of Morton, FRS, communicated to the Royal Society of London, UK, a “singular fact”. In attempting to domesticate the quagga—a zebra-like, South American member of the horse family (now extinct)—he was forced to breed a male with a female Arabian mare. The resulting hybrid was predictable, but the singularity appeared when the Arabian mare was subsequently mated with an Arabian stallion: their offspring possessed colour and hair characteristics of the quagga.

1820年，FRS的莫顿伯爵，写信给英国伦敦皇家学会，称他发现了一个"奇异的事情" 。他在试图驯养斑驴（一种马，产于南美，外型象斑马，现已绝迹）时，这匹雄性斑驴与一匹雌性阿拉伯母驴交配，杂交的结果正常。但后来怪事出现了，那匹阿拉伯母驴后来与一匹阿拉伯种马交配后，他们的后代拥有斑驴的肤色及毛发特征。

Animal breeders had long worried that prized pure-bred females— whether of horses, pigs, sheep, or dogs—would be forever contaminated were they allowed to copulate with a male of impure blood. The first impregnation had lasting consequences, since the fetus “inoculated” the mother’s blood and through it her whole being with characteristics of its sire. This doctrine carried scientific respectability throughout the 19th century: Claude Bernard, Charles Darwin, and many other shrewd observers accepted the observational evidence and elaborated theories to account for it. They called it “infection of the germ”, a neat instance of a modern sounding phrase with an obsolete meaning: the fetus permanently affecting the mother’s reserve eggs. This idea was given its impressive Greek name, telegony (“at a distance”and “offspring”) by August Weismann (1834–1914), the German biologist whose rigorous separation of somatic and germinal cells cast doubt on the inheritance of acquired characteristics. Weismann believed his notion of the germ plasm could explain telegony, should it be shown to exist, but he doubted its reality.

动物饲养着一直以来都在担心珍贵的纯种雌性动物（无论是马，猪，羊，狗）如果与一个非纯种的雄性动物交配，她们的纯种特性将永远被污染。第一次的受精将会影响持久，因为胚胎不但"接种"了母亲的血液，还包括所有和她交配过的雄性。这一学说在19世纪一直得到科学界的认可： Claude Bernard, Charles Darwin和其他许多精明的观察家接受了观测证据，并阐述理论进行解释。他们称之为"细菌感染" ，意思是“胎儿永久影响母亲的储备卵子”。August Weismann（1834年～1914年，德国生物学家）给这一理论起了一个令人印象深刻的希腊名字， telegony （ "距离"和"后代" ），他仔细的分离肉体和生发细胞，对特征遗传提出质疑。Weismann相信他的关于遗传物质的概念可以解释telegony，它可能是真的，但Weismann怀疑其真实性。

Although always largely an animal breeders’ issue, telegony was also invoked in ideas about human inheritance. Imperialists found it a convenient explanation of the decimation of aboriginal groups after contact with Europeans, the assumption being that their women became less fertile after cohabitation with white men. The offspring of widows in second marriages were often believed to favour the woman’s deceased husband. Emile Zola used the theory as a theme in his novel Madeleine Férat (1868). Experiments by Weismann and the Scottish naturalist J C Ewart cast doubt on the accuracy of the animal observations. The statistician Karl Pearson pointed out that, were telegony true, the later children of the same couple ought increasingly to resemble the father, which he showed was not the case. With the triumph of theories of hard heredity, telegony disappeared. It had not all been doom and gloom, however. Within popular culture, the doctrine offered women a bit of freedom in marriage, since adulterous offspring were believed to resemble the legal father more than the biological one. Hence the proverb: “filium ex adultera excusare matrem a culpa”.

尽管这个是动物饲养者的关注的问题， telegony还引起了人类遗传的问题。帝国主义者通过它找到了一个方便的解释，用于大批屠杀与欧洲人接触的土著居民。他们认为土著妇女与白人男性同居后，将会less fertile；寡妇第二次婚姻的后代会更像她已故的丈夫。Emile Zola用这个理论作为主题，写了小说Madeleine Férat （ 1868 ）。Weismann的实验和苏格兰博物学家 J C Ewart怀疑其观察结果的准确性。统计学家Karl Pearson指出，假如telegony属实，一对夫妇的几个孩子中，越小的孩子应该越像父亲，而他发现事实并非如此。随着遗传学的胜利， telegony理论被淘汰了。但它没有完全消失，在通俗文化中，该学说为已婚妇女提供了一点自由，因为按照该理论，通奸产生的后代会酷似其法律上的父亲，而非生物学上的。所以谚语说： "filium ex adultera excusare matrem a culpa" 。

Bill Bynum

Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of

Medicine at UCL, 24 Eversholt Street,

London NW1 1AD, UK

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“先父遗传”学说被遗传科学推翻前，曾被旧社会的许多人相信，例如此词条：

大不列颠百科全书第11版（1911年出版）

先父遗传（Telegony）

先父遗传（Gr. Ti Xe, far, and y6vos, offspring），这个词现在用来指后代可以从其母亲的前任配偶那里继承特性的假说。直到最近，母兽从其一个或多个前任配偶那里获得遗传特性，这一猜想被养殖者们称为“反射”，被生理学家称为“生殖细胞的传染”，或者简单地称之为“传染”。“传染”学说和与之相关的“母感印象”学说（“母感印象”指的是这样的猜想，怀孕母兽的经历会直接影响到其未出生的后代，比如后代耳聋归因于母兽在孕期被巨大的声响吓到，后代眼盲是由于母兽在孕期曾看到盲人－－－译者注），似乎同样流传久远而广泛。早期信奉“母感印象”学说的证据可以在“Jacob把去了皮的木棍放在Laban的牛前面，诱导它们生出有纹的、有点的和有斑的后代”（《圣经。创世纪》中的典故－－－译者注）中找到；而早期信奉“传染”学说的证据可以从一些作家的文章中找到－－－犹太人要求没有子女的寡妇嫁给其亡夫的兄弟，因为他或许可以“把种子提供给他的兄弟”。不管在古代养殖者们的观点是什么，可以肯定中世纪的养殖者们相信“传染”学说是很普遍的事。而在过去的两个世纪中，因为得到博物学家的认可，英国的养殖者们尤其坚定地认为后代频繁地从其母亲的前任配偶那里继承特性，同时英国和欧洲大陆的博物学家（显然未将养殖者的断言付与实验的验证）把“反射”解释为母兽的生殖细胞受到前任配偶的直接或间接的“传染”。值得注意的是，L. Agassiz, C. Darwin（达尔文）, W. B. Carpenter和 G. J. Romanes都或多或少是“传染”学说的坚定支持者。几年以前，除了Professor A. Weismann，其他生物学的领军人物，或者满意于“传染”学说，或者认为其可信度是足够的。即使Professor Weismann也没有否认后代“反射”其母亲的前任配偶。这个广泛传播的学说，他认为“是有道理的和有依据的”，但是他又小心地加上“只有经过传统的系统性研究的验证，也就是实验，才能将先父遗传确认为事实”。对于这个假说的态度，Professor Weismann和Herbert Spencer明显不一样，后者在几年前说他已经有足够的证据证实种兽可以施加影响到与其交配过的母兽的在交配之后出生的后代上。先父遗传是否成立这个问题的重要性是很显然的。如果母马和其他雌性动物易受它的第一个和其后的配偶的“传染”，先父遗传就可以列为一种变异的原因。据此养殖者们就有充分的理由相信纯种的母兽和不同种类的种兽交配会容易受到“污染”；而如果次等的和杂种的母兽首先和高等的种兽交配，然后即使再与次等的和杂种的种兽交配，也能产下较优等的后代。另一方面，如果“生殖细胞的传染”是不可能的，先父遗传就不能视为一种变异的原因。因此养殖者们将不能再认为母马和其他雌性动物因混杂的交配而被“污染”,也不能通过与先与强壮的种兽交配而获益。根据养殖者们的反映，尽管先父遗传的迹象在几乎所有的家畜和家禽中都有发现，但主要还是集中在马和狗这两种动物身上。

马科动物的先父遗传。Beecher在17世纪末指出“当母马先与驴子交配产下骡子之后，然后再与公马交配产下马驹时，马驹的身上就有与其母亲的奸夫驴子相联系的条纹”。用于生产骡子的母马被“污染”了，这个结论被广泛的信奉着，但是驴子持续影响的不可辩驳的证据，如同Agassiz假设的那样，同样很显眼地缺失着。 Darwin说：“值得注意的是，巴西南部的农民们深信，母马一旦生过骡子，然后再将其与公马养在一起后生下的小马驹身上很容易有像骡子那样的条纹” （Animals and Plants, vol. i. p. 436）。在另一方面，Baron de Parana说：“我有许多亲友在大规模养殖骡子的饲养场中工作，每个饲养场一年新生骡子有400－1000个。在所有这些饲养场中，母马和驴子经过两到三次的杂交之后，饲养员把母马和公马养在一起，然而却从来没有生出在某些方面有一点像驴子或骡子的纯种马驹。”先父遗传的广泛流行，在很大程度上源于 1820年Lord Morton报告给the Royal Society的一次疑似“传染”事件。一匹栗色的母马在和一匹白氏斑马杂交之后，再与一只黑色的阿拉伯马交配产下的三只马驹身上有一些条纹，其中一只的条纹的数目比之前和白氏斑马杂交之后产下的后代还要多。然而对这次疑似“传染”事件的思考越多，就越觉得将其作为“传染”的证明是不可靠的。条纹在高等级的阿拉伯马中很常见，而有时候阿拉伯母马的杂交后代的穿过腿部的条纹以及其它和斑马类似的斑点比前面Lord Morton的那只拥有7/8阿拉伯马血统的母马后面产下的三个后代还要清楚。因为没有做对照实验，所以没有理由认定Lord Morton的那只栗色的母马如果先与那只黑色的阿拉伯马交配，会产下较少条纹的后代。为了解释后面生下的那三个马驹身上的条纹，我们仅仅需要假设（既然杂交的规律很好理解）那个有7/8阿拉伯马血统的栗色的母马身上有Kattiawar或者其它印度品种的潜伏特征（即隐性基因－－－译者注），而后者一般会出现条纹。因为Darwin和其他人已经将Lord Morton的那匹母马视为证实“传染”学说的强有力的证据，尽可能精确的重复Lord Morton的实验就成为在几年前很吸引人的事。白氏斑马已经灭绝了。一些母马先和一匹条纹很多的斑马养在一起，然后再和阿拉伯公马交配。另一些母马做对照实验。30匹母马先和那匹Burchell斑马杂交出了17个后代，然后再和阿拉伯公马交配产下了20匹马驹。用作对照实验的母马产下了10匹纯种马驹。不像Lord Morton的白氏斑马的杂交后代，所有斑马的杂交后代的条纹都非常多，有的后代条纹非常清楚，有的后代的条纹比它们的父亲还要多。在高原母马和阿拉伯公马交配产生的马驹中，有三匹在出生时看不出明显的区别。但是因为在那些从未见过斑马的母马产下的后代中的两个也有同样清楚的条纹，所以不能把先杂交过的母马和阿拉伯公马交配产下的马驹中出现了条纹归因于其母亲受到了前任配偶的“传染”。更进一步，在后面出生的阿拉伯公马的后代中也没有找到其它能证实“传染”学说的证据，包括鬃毛，尾巴，蹄子和习性等。在纯种马驹也就是从未与斑马交配过的母马的后代中，有两匹出生时带有条纹而有一匹后来才长出了条纹－－－这种现象揭示了马驹的皮毛会更换。而且当杂交过的母马和阿拉伯公马的后代身上的淡淡的条纹消失以后，三匹纯种小马身上的条纹还在。它们最后终生留有条纹，其中一个是黑色的Shetland母马和黑色的Shetland种马的后代，另一个是暗褐色的Norwegian矮种马和杂色的阿拉伯母马后代，最后一个是Norwegian矮种马和红棕色的杂种的阿拉伯母马的后代。先父遗传的信奉者们曾宣称其证据可以出现在第二代中。为了验证这一假说，把一个红棕色的母马，和它的一个有很多条纹的同母异父的杂交姐妹及一个杂种的高原矮种马养在一起，而把一个正在照看它的杂交后代的高原母马和一个公马及其同母异父的杂种兄弟养在一起。结果，新出生的两个小母马与斑马以及斑马的杂交后代没有一点有关联的特征。在马与驴的杂交中也获得了同样的结果，先父遗传传说在这些正规的系统性研究中都毫无例外的未获得证实，就像几年前Professor Weismann表明的那样（参考 Cossar Ewart, The Penycuik Experiments, 1899）。

犬科动物的先父遗传。如果可能的话，狗饲养员比马饲养员还要更加彻底地支持先父遗传假说。然而，Sir Everett Millais，一个公认的权威，大胆地宣称其在近30年中，做了各种各样的实验，而未见一个先父遗传的实例。最近的实验支持Millais的结论。在当今，苏格兰猎鹿犬和达尔马提亚狗（一种有斑点的用于运输的狗）都是最纯的品种。一条猎鹿犬给一条达尔马提亚狗生下7个小狗以后，又和同种的狗养在一起。结果生下了5只小狗，个个都成长为灵敏的猎犬，看不出其与差异巨大的达尔马提亚狗之间有什么关联。在猎鹿犬和retriever（找回猎物的犬）首先交配的情况下也获得相同的结果。每年在犬类都发生许多非人为刻意安排的先父遗传实验，其中的两次值得注意。一只黑斑苏格兰猎犬先给一只卷毛、肝白色的西班牙猎狗生下了几只小狗。这些小狗体型上像西班牙猎狗，颜色是褐白色的。随后这只猎犬又给一只黑斑苏格兰猎犬生下了一窝小狗，这窝小狗都是标准的苏格兰猎犬，其中三只都在有影响的比赛中获了奖。第二个这样的受试者是一只硬毛猎狐犬，而种狗先后分别是白色的波美拉尼亚狗和杂种爱尔兰猎犬。在充分获得被“污染”机会以后，它开始和一只同品种的获奖狗交配，生下了三只小狗，都是纯正的猎狐犬，其中的一只还被认为是该品种中不可多得的样品狗。

在猫、兔、鼠、牛、羊、家禽和鸽子中进行的类似实验，同在马和狗中做的一样，都未能获得后代可以从其母亲的前任配偶那里继承特性的证据；也就是说，试图证明雌性动物被它的第一个配偶“传染”，然后更换配偶之后生下的后代在身体构造或习性上与前任配偶有一定相关的尝试完全失败。还有一点或许要注意，一些养殖者不仅认为雌性会被其配偶“传染”，而且认为雄性也能从其配偶那里获得特性，这个性条似乎特别流行于养牛者中；但是现在，例如，一头长角的高地公牛和一只黑色无角的盖勒韦母牛杂交，然后就可以通过纯种的高地母牛获得长的像盖勒韦牛的小牛，这是很难想象的。

总之，需要指出的是，养殖者和生物学家在过去用“传染”假说考虑问题是可以理解的。令人吃惊的是即使到现在我们仍然对变异的原因知之甚少，在几年前，我们还是习惯性地忽略隔代遗传或者返祖这样的现象。尽管我们对于遗传与变异的法则理解更好了，但是我们仍然对于大多数的家养动物的起源知道的不多。另一方面，通过Mendel（孟德尔）和其他人的实验，现在我们知道杂交的动物和植物可以表现出其纯种双亲之一的所有性状，同样我们也知道被视为纯种双亲的后代有时会与其双亲差异巨大，出现返祖现象。对遗传与变异规律理解的越好，对生殖细胞的产生、结合、直至发育成为成熟个体的整个过程知道的越多，我们寻求先父遗传和其它类似学说的解释的需求就越少。（J. C. E.）

TELEGONY,the name now given to the hypothesis that offspring sometimes inherit characters from a previous mate of their dam. Until recent years the supposed inheritance of characters acquired by a dam from one or more of her former mates was usually designated by breeders "throwing back"; by physiologists, "infection of the germ," or simply "infection." The doctrine of "infection," like the somewhat allied doctrine of "maternal impressions," seems to be alike ancient and widespread. Evidence of the antiquity of the belief in "maternal impressions" we have in Jacob placing peeled rods before Laban''s cattle to induce them to bring forth "ring-straked speckled and spotted" offspring; evidence of the antiquity of the "infection" doctrine we have, according to some writers, in the practice amongst the Israelites of requiring the childless widow to marry her deceased husband''s brother, that he might "raise up seed to his brother." Whatever may have been the views of stockowners in the remote past, it is certain that during the middle ages the belief in "infection" was common amongst breeders, and that during the last two centuries it met with the general approval of naturalists, English breeders being especially satisfied of the fact that the offspring frequently inherited some of their characters from a former mate of the dam, while both English and Continental naturalists (apparently without putting the assertions of breeders to the test of experiment) accounted for the "throwing back" by saying the germ cells of the dam had been directly or indirectly "infected" by a former mate. It is noteworthy that L. Agassiz, C. Darwin, 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, who some years ago mentioned that he had evidence "enough to prove the fact of a previous sire asserting his influence on a subsequent progeny." 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, however 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 l000 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 1820 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 stripes - in 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 frequentlythoroughbred 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 purebred 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. But as equally distinct markings occurred on two pure-bred Highland foals out of mares which had never seen a zebra, it was impossible to ascribe the stripes on the foals born after zebra hybrids to infection of their respective dams. Further, the subsequent foals afforded no evidence of infection, either in the mane, tail, hoofs or disposition. Of the pure-bred foals, i.e. the foals by pure-bred sires out of mares which had never been mated with a zebra, two were striped at birth and one acquired stripes later - they were revealed as the foal''s coat was shed. Moreover, while the faint markings on the foals born after hybrids completely disappeared with the foals'' coat, the stripes on the three pure-bred colts persisted. One of the permanently striped colts, a bay, was out of a black Shetland mare by a black Shetland sire, one was by a dun Norwegian pony out of a roan-coloured Arab mare, while the third was by a Norwegian pony out of a half-bred bay Arab mare. It has been asserted by believers in telegony that evidence of infection may appear in the second though not present in the first generation. By way of testing this assumption, a bay filly, the half-sister of a richly striped hybrid, was put to a cross-bred Highland pony, and a Highland mare, while nursing her hybrid foal, was put to a colt the half-brother of a hybrid. The result was two fillies which in no single point either suggest a zebra or a zebra hybrid. Similar results having been obtained with horses and asses, there is no escape from the conclusion that the telegony tradition is not confirmed by such methodical investigations as were suggested some years ago by Professor Weismann (see Cossar Ewart, The Penycuik Experiments, 1899) 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 experiments support Millais''s conclusion. Two of the purest breeds at the present day are the Scottish deerhound and the Dalmatian (spotted carriage-dog), A deerhound after having seven pups to a Dalmatian was put to a dog of her own breed. The result was five pups, which have grown into handsome hounds without the remotest suggestion of the previous Dalmatian mate of their dam. A similar result was obtained with a deerhound first mated with a retriever. Many accidental experiments on telegony are made annually with dogs. Two such experiments may be mentioned. A black-brindled Scottish terrier belonging to a famous breed had first a litter of pups to a curly-haired 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 crossbred 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 and markings 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 understood, the fact remains that we know little of the origin of the majority of our domestic