If mules were Freudians they would be kicking mad. They always have parents, rarely have offspring. Because they are the hybrid, infertile offspring of a mare and a jackass, race suicide is as involuntary among mules as old-fashioned families among rabbits. When Nickolaas Jecobus Vermaak, of Natal, South Africa, announced recently that his mare mule had thrown a "colt" sired by a stallion, neighboring farmers smiled incredulously. But he had rightly trusted his mule-sense. Mule-wise Dr. John Quinlan dashed over from the Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute, confirmed his guess.
Mulish sterility is an old slander of this branch of the Equidae, based on...