SECRETARY'S REPORT. 85 



sagacity in improving their stock, we should see fewer ill-favored 

 kine than at present. 



The possibility of some effect being produced by a strong impres- 

 sion at the time of conception, is not to be confounded with the 

 popular error that "marks" upon an infant* are due to a transient, 

 although strong impression upon the imagination of the mother at 

 any period of gestation, which is unsupported by facts and absurd ; 

 but there are facts sufficient upon record to prove that habilual 

 mental condition, and especially at an early stage of pregnancy, 

 may have the effect to produce some bodily deformity, and should 

 induce great caution. 



Atavism, or Ancestral Influence. — It may not be easy to say 

 whether this phenomenon should be considered more properly in 

 connection with the law of similarity, or with that of variation. 

 Youatt, in his work on cattle published by the Society for the Dif- 

 fusion of Useful Knowledge, inclines to the former. He speaks of 

 it as showing the universality of the application of the axiom that 

 " like produces like" — that when this " may not seem to hold good, 

 it is often because the lost resemblance to generations gone by is 

 strongly revived." In common experience its occurrence has, at 

 least, the appearance of variation, and practically it matters little 

 whether it be considered under one head or the other. The phe- 

 nomenon, or law, as it is sometimes called, f of atavism, or ancestral 

 influence, is one of considerable practical importance, and well 

 deserves careful attention by the breeder of farm stock. 



Every one is aware that it is nothing unusual for a child to resem- 

 ble 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 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 



* Carpenter's Physiology, new edition, page 783. 



t From the Latin Atavus — meaning any ancestor indefinitely, as a grandmother's 

 great grandfather. 



