322 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



agricultural school supported by public money, I can imagine much 

 shaking of heads on the county council governing that institution, and 

 yet it is no longer in dispute that he provided the one bit of solid dis- 

 covery upon which all breeding practise will henceforth be based. 



Everywhere the same need for accurate knowledge is apparent. I 

 suppose horse-breeding is an art which has by the application of com- 

 mon sense and great experience been carried to about as high a point 

 of perfection as any. Yet even here I have seen a mistake made which 

 is obvious to any one accustomed to analytical breeding. Among a 

 number of stallions provided at great expense to improve the breed of 

 horses in a certain district was one which was shown me as something 

 of a curiosity. This particular animal had been bred by one of the 

 provided stallions out of an indifferent country mare. It had been 

 kept as an unusually good-looking colt, and was now traveling the 

 country as a breeding stallion, under the highest auspices. I thought 

 to myself that if such a practise is sanctioned by breeding acumen and 

 common sense, science is not after all so very ambitious if she aspires 

 to do rather better. The breeder has continually to remind himself 

 that it is not what the animal or plant looks that matters, but what it is. 

 Analysis has taught us to realize, first, that each animal and plant is 

 a double structure, and next that the appearance may show only half 

 its composition. 



With respect to the inheritance of many physiological qualities of 

 divers kinds we have made at least a beginning of knowledge, but there 

 is one class of phenomena as yet almost untouched. This is the mis- 

 cellaneous group of attributes which are usually measured in terms of 

 size, fertility, yield and the like. This group of characters has more 

 than common significance to the practical man. Analysis of them can 

 nevertheless only become possible when pure science has progressed far 

 beyond the point yet reached. 



I know few lines of pure research more attractive and at the same 

 time more likely to lead to economic results than an investigation of 

 the nature of variation in size of the whole organism or of its parts. 

 By what factors is it caused? By what steps does it proceed? By 

 what limitations is it beset? In illustration of the application of these 

 questions I may refer to a variety of topics that have been lately brought 

 to my notice. In the case of merino sheep I have been asked by an 

 Australian breeder whether it is possible to combine the optimum length 

 of wool with the optimum fineness and the right degree of crimping. 

 I have to reply that absolutely nothing is yet known for certain as to 

 the physiological factors determining the length or the fineness of wool. 

 The crimping of the fibers is an expression of the fact that each par- 

 ticular hair is curved, and if free and untwisted would form a cork- 

 screw spiral, but as to the genetics of curly hair even in man very little 



