88 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



touched — as to what the male and female may likely give to the 

 offspring — that is a matter which is still vague ; and when Pro- 

 fessor Chadbourne takes charge of the college, I hope he will 

 keep a large stock of animals, and constantly experiment. 



Professor Chadbourne. I have seen some things in the human 

 species, that may bear upon the question I have suggested. I 

 know one man, who, when a boy, had his nose broken and very 

 badly injured. I suppose you would say, that that was such an 

 accidental thing, that it could have no effect upon the offspring ; 

 but it is a fact, that three of his children were born with noses 

 broken and twisted, exactly as his was. That may have been 

 all accidental, but I state it as a fact. 



Now another point, which has a special bearing upon what the 

 Professor has been saying, in reference to the effect of grand- 

 parents. I have attended a course of clynical lectures at the 

 college, and one day two young men were brought into the 

 clynic, each of whom, had six toes upon his feet. Their feet 

 were exactly alike, as far as you could see, and there was a toe 

 growing out on the side of the foot, so that they had to wear 

 very wide boots ; and they were brought there for the purpose 

 of having them removed. I made inquiries as to their parents, 

 and I found that they were not brothers, but cousins ; one was 

 the son of a man whose sister was the mother of the other. The 

 brother had a son, who had this toe growing out of the .side of 

 the foot, and the sister had a child, with a toe growing out of 

 the side of the foot. Neither of the parents had it, but it was a 

 characteristic of the grandparents, and appeared in the family 

 long before. It struck me as a very remarkable fact. Here 

 was a man without this characteristic, who had begotten a child 

 with it ; and here was a woman without it, who had produced 

 a child with it ; so that the feet of the two boys looked exactly 

 alike. 



Dr. Loring. I desire to discuss this question a little, not 

 because I can say anything particularly new, or can throw any 

 particular light upon the matter, which is not already in the 

 minds of the Board ; but because I am desirous of doing my 

 duty, and saying anything that can possibly be said upon the 

 question before the Board, to elicit any new facts of importance 

 from others. 



