On the fœtus in utero, as inoculating the maternal with the peculiarities of the paternal organism : and on the influence thereby exerted by the male on the constitution and the reproductive powers of the female / by Alexander Harvey, M.D.

  • Harvey, Alexander, 1811-1889.
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the fœtus in utero, as inoculating the maternal with the peculiarities of the paternal organism : and on the influence thereby exerted by the male on the constitution and the reproductive powers of the female / by Alexander Harvey, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    Very recently, in a paper published in the Aberdeen Journal,^ an intellio-cnt veterinary surgeon, Mr James M'Gillivray, of Huntly, has offered an explanation, which seems to me to be the true one. His theory is set forth in the following statements quoted from that paper:— When a pure animal of any breed has been preg- nant to an animal of a different breed, such pregnant animal is a cross ever after; the j^uriti/ of her blood being lost, in consequence of her connection with the foreign animal; and again : If a cow, say of the pure Aberdeenshire breed, is in calf to a bull of the short- horn breed (known as the Tees water breed), in proportion as this calf partakes of the nature and physical characters of the bull, just in proportion will the blood of the cow become contaminated, and herself a cross, for ever incapable of producing a pure calf of any breed. It is maintained, therefore (Mr M'Gillivray adds), that the great variety of non-descript animals to be met with are the result of the crossing S3'^stem ; the prevailing evil of which is, the admission of bulls of various breeds to the same cow, whereby the blood is completely vitiated In explanation of his theory, Mr M'Gillivray enters into particu- lars as to the nature of the connection subsisting between the foetus in utero and its mother, with the view of showing (what seems to him essential to the validity of the theory) that there is a direct* vascular communication between the two; and that, while a portion of the mother's blood is continually passing by direct transmission into the body of the foetus, the latter returns to the former so much of that blood as is not needed by it, and that this superfluous blood, after circulating through the system of the foetus, passes as directly into the system of the mother, and, commingling with the rest of her blood, destroys its purity, contaminates, vitiates it. Mr M'Gillivray is quite wrong, I apprehend, in assuming that there is, in any case, a direct vascular connection between the foetus and its mother. Nor does the assumption appear to me at all necessary to establish the theory. But waiving, for the present, all discussion of that point, it may here be observed that Mr M'Gil- livray regards the influence exerted by the male on the female ani- mal, through the medium of the foetus, as constitutional; and per- haps the best general expression of the theory is, that the foetus, partaking, as it must, of the characters or peculiarities of its father, inocidates therewith the blood, and, genei'ally, the system, of its mothei'. The subject now opened up is certainly one of great interest in general physiology, as well as of considerable practical importance to breeders. It cannot but be interesting to inquire whether the fact instanced in Lord Morton's mare, is or is not a general law in animal physiology ; and, if it be, whether and how fjir it is modified, in its operation, in different animals, and under different cii'cum- J March 21 and 28, 1849.