Every one is aware that it is nothing unusual for a child to resemble its grandfather or grandmother or some ancestor still farther back, more than it does either its own father or mother. The fact is too familiar to require the citing of examples. We find the same occurrence among our domestic animals, and oftener in proportion as the breeds are crossed or mixed up. Among our common stock of neat cattle, (_natives_, as they are often called,) originating as they have done from animals brought from England, Scotland, Denmark, France and Spain, each possessing different characteristics of form, color and use; and bred, as our common stock has usually been, indiscriminately together, with no special point in view, no attempt to obtain any particular type or form, or to secure adaptation for any particular purpose, we have very frequent opportunities of witnessing the results of the operation of this law of hereditary transmission. So common indeed is its occurrence, that the remark is often made, that however good a cow may be, there is no telling beforehand what sort of a calf she may have.
The fact is sufficiently obvious that certain peculiarities often lie dormant for a generation or two and then reappear in subsequent progeny. Stockmen often speak of it as "breeding back," or "crying back." The cause of this phenomenon we may not fully understand. A late writer says, "it is to be explained on the supposition that the qualities were transmitted by the grandfather to the father in whom they were _masked_ by the presence of some antagonistic or controlling influence, and were thence transmitted to the son in whom the antagonistic influence being withdrawn they manifest themselves." A French writer on Physiology says, if there is not inheritance of paternal characteristics, there is at least an _aptitude_ to inherit them, a disposition to reproduce them; and there is always a transmission of this aptitude to some new descendants, among whom these traits will manifest themselves sooner or later.[16] Mr. Singer, let us say, has a remarkable aptitude for music; but the influence of Mrs. Singer is such that their children inheriting her imperfect ear, manifest no musical talent whatever. These children however have inherited the disposition of the father in spite of its non-manifestation; and if, when they transmit what in them is latent, the influence of their wives is favorable, the grand-children may turn out musically gifted.