Page:Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Vol 60.djvu/299

Rh Bellamy Clifton, M .A.; W illiam T urner Thiselton Dyer, C.M.G. ; Professor Jam es Alfred Ew ing, M .A .; Lazarus Fletcher, M .A .; W alter Holbrook Gaskell, M.D. ; Professor A lfred George G reenhill, M .A .; W illiam H uggins, D .C .L .; Professor Charles Lap w orth, L L .D .; Major Percy A lexander MacMahon, R .A .; Professor R aphael Meldola, F .C .S .; Professor W illiam Ram say, P h .D .; The Lord W alsingham , M .A .; Professor W alter F rank R aphael W eldon, M.A. ; A dm iral William James Lloyd Wharton, C.B.

The following Papers were read :—

I. “ M athem atical C ontributions to the Theory of Evolution. On Telegony in Man, &c.” By Karl P earson, F.R .S., U niversity College, w ith the assistance of Miss A lice Lee, Bedford College, London.

II. “ On the M agnetic Perm eability of Liquid Oxygen and Liquid A ir.” By J. A. F leming, M.A., D.Sc., Professor of Electrical Engineering in U niversity College, London, and James D ewar, LL.D., F.R .S., Fullerian Professor of C hem istry in the Royal Institution. Mathematical Contributions to the Theory o f Evolution. 273-

(1) The term telegony has been used to cover cases in which a female A, after m ating with a male B, bears to a male C offspring having some resemblance to or some peculiar characteristic of A ’s first mate B. The instances of telegony usually cited are (i) cases of thoroughbred bitches when covered by a thoroughbred dog, reverting m their litter to half-breds, when they have been previously crossed by dogs of other races. Whether absolutely unimpeachable instances of this can be produced is, perhaps, open to question, but e s long opinion on the subject among dog-fanciers is at least remarkable; (ii) the case of the quagga noted by Darw in (see Origin of Species,’ 4th edition, p. 193), and still more recently (m ) a noteworthy case of telegony in man cited in the ‘British Medical Jo u rn a l’ (see No. 1834, February 22, 1896, p. 462). In this latter case a very rare male malformation, which occurred m the male B, was found in the son of his widow A, by a second husband C. Here, as m the other cases cited, a question may always aise as to the possibly unobserved or unknown occurrence of the