Definition of "telegony" []

• The belief that in the case of siblings from the same mother but different fathers the second sibling could inherit characteristics from the father of the first (noun)

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• "It is called telegony and is, briefly, this: that conception by a female results in a definite modification of her germ-plasm from the influence of the male, and that this modification will be shown in the offspring she may subsequently bear to a second male."
• "This article from Pedigree Dynamics, Conception and Misconceptions: a lightheaded look at breeding theories of the past (PDF format), tells how, despite scientific acceptance elsewhere of Mendelian genetics, theories such as telegony and 'mental impression' survived in the thoroughbred horse breeding industry well into the 20th century."
• "Even science was influenced by the old sympathetic magic view that woman could be contaminated by the touch of any other man than her husband, for the principle of telegony, that the father of one child could pass on his characteristics to offspring by other fathers, lingered in biological teaching until the very recent discoveries of the physical basis of heredity in the chromosomes."