1856.] Haw to Choose a Good 3filch Cow. 573 



in wliich the latter predominates. The North Highland cow also 

 possesses a union of the same temperaments, but the nervous pre- 

 dominates, which gives her a restless and even fierce aspect. The 

 Short-horn possesses a temperament in which the lymphatic is large- 

 ly developed ; she is slow and sluggish, but all the more disposed to 

 fatten on that account. The muscular temperament is disappearing 

 before the march of improvement, as animals of this description are 

 neither good for the grazier nor the dairy, being fleshy, thick-skinned, 

 and poor milkers. Constitution is the result of natural tempera- 

 ment and physical configuration, but each temperament has its own 

 particular diseases to which it is liable. The nervous temperament 

 predisposes to fevers, the sanguine to inflammations, and the lymphat- 

 ic to lung diseases ; but as these temperaments are never found 

 distinct, but always combined together in some proportion or other, 

 the peculiar diseases to which these unions give rise, are as endless 

 as the constitutions themselves. 



Atmospheric causes, and artificial treatment, also impress certain 

 physiological characteristics upon cattle. Exposure to cold, when 

 young, has a tendency to develop those parts of the system whose 

 office it is to protect the vital functions from being injured by this 

 cause. When an animal is early exposed to cold, the hide thickens, 

 and becomes covered with long thick hair. It becomes innured to 

 exposure, and is little afi'ected by atmospheric changes. A long 

 continuance of such treatment, as is the case of the kyloes, from 

 one generation to another, soon impresses a peculiar habit of growth 

 upon them, and this in time settles into a fixed and permanent 

 temperament, or physiological character. Even, however, among in- 

 dividuals of the same breed, exposed to the same external influences, 

 there are great discrepancies as regards individual constitutions. 

 Some are more hardy than others, simply because certain causes, 

 either accidentally or designedly induced, have given them better 

 digestive powers, stronger lungs, and more vital energy. This supe- 

 riority of constitution, whatever may be its cause, is generally indi- 

 cated by a large round body, a soft flexible skin, by no means thin, 

 which is covered with a thick coat of soft, silky or woolly hair. A 

 large paunch is usually the sign of an animal which can, and will 

 consume a great quantity of fodder, in the shape of hay or straw ; 

 and this we know, by experience, to be one of the best indications of a 

 good, healthy, hardy, thriving animal, whether cow, horse or sheep. 

 Strength of constitution can be transmitted as well as other peculi- 



