456 INHERITANCE. Chap. XII. 



great trainer, asserts, they are deficient in wind, and cannot 

 keep up the pace. Mr. Lawrence also remarks, " perhaps no 

 instance has ever occurred of a three-part-bred horse saving 

 his ' distance ' in running two miles with thoroughbred racers." 

 It has been stated by Cecil, that when unknown horses, whose 

 parents were not celebrated, have unexpectedly won great 

 races, as in the case of Priam, they can always be proved to 

 be descended, on both sides, through many generations, from 

 first-rate ancestors. On the Continent, Baron Cameronn 

 challenges, in a German veterinary periodical, the opponents 

 of the English race-horse to name one good horse on the 

 Continent, which has not some English race-blood in his 

 veins. 23 



With respect to the transmission of the many slight, but 

 infinitely diversified characters, by which the domestic races 

 of animals and plants are distinguished, nothing need be said ; 

 for the very existence of persistent races proclaims the power 

 of inheritance. 



A few special cases, however, deserve some consideration. 

 It might have been anticipated, that deviations from the law 

 of symmetry would not have been inherited. But Anderson 24 

 states that a rabbit produced in a litter a young animal 

 having only one ear; and from this animal a breed was 

 formed which steadily produced one-eared rabbits. He also 

 mentions a bitch with a single leg deficient, and she produced 

 several puppies with the same deficiency. From Hofacker's 

 account, 25 it appears that a one-horned stag was seen in 1781 

 in a forest in Germany, in 1788 two, and afterwards, from 

 year to year, many were observed with only one horn on the 

 right side of the head. A cow lost a horn by suppuration, 26 

 and she produced three calves which had on the same side of 

 the head, instead of a horn, a small bony lump attached 



23 These statements are taken from Baron Cameronn, quoted in ' The 



the following works in order: — Youatt Veterinary,' vol. x. p. 500. 



on "The Horse,' p. 48; Mr. Darvill, 24 'Recreations in Agriculture and 



in 'The Veterinary,' vol. viii. p. 50. Nat. Hist.,' vol. i. p. 68. 



With respect to Robson, see ' The 25 ' Ueber die Eigenschaften,' &c, 



Veterinary,' vol. iii. p. 580; Mr. 1828, s. 107. 



Lawrence on ' The Horse,' 1829, p. 9 ; 26 Bronn's ' Geschichte der Natur,' 



'The Stud Farm,' by Cecil, 18cl • Band ii. s. 132. 



