174 ^^^^ POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



from their parents. Man, on the other hand, inherits the culture 

 of ages and gathers and conserves the wisdom of successive gen- 

 erations, and may thus profit by every advance of the race, and, 

 in turn, aid in perfecting it more and more/' 



This assertion has been repeated by scientists of the ohl school 

 as though it were an axiom of natural history, instead of an arro- 

 gant anthropocentric assumption refuted by scores of well-au- 

 thenticated facts. The whole j^rocess of domestication, which is 

 to the lower animals what civilization is to man, and the possi- 

 bility of producing and propagating desirable qualities in the 

 race, run counter to Buff on"s theory. The value of a horse's pedi- 

 gree depends upon the transmissibility of distinctive characteris- 

 tics which were originally peculiar to some individual horse, 

 idiosyncrasies which commended themselves to man as worthy 

 of preservation, or such as in the natural struggle for existence 

 would assert and propagate themselves. 



If the descendants of blood-horses do not inherit the individual 

 training of their sires, neither are the children of scholars or 

 m.usicians born with a knowledge of books or the ability to play 

 on musical instruments. What is inherited in both cases is some 

 particular disposition or endowment, a superior aptitude for the 

 things in which their progenitors excelled. Indeed, this heritage 

 is handed down in horses with surer and steadier increase, or, at 

 least, with smaller loss and depreciation than in human beings, 

 since they are mated with sole reference to this result ; and there 

 is no room left for the play of personal fancy and caprice, or for 

 social, sentimental, or pecuniary considerations, which exert a 

 baneful influence upon marriage from a physiological point of 

 view, and contribute to the deterioration of the race. This is 

 strikingly perceptible in some portions of Europe, where the 

 struggle for existence, and especially for high social j^osition, is 

 exceedingly intense, and a large dower suffices to cover u^d all 

 mental and physical deficiencies in the bride. 



The scientific swine-breeder keeps genealogical tables of his 

 pigs, and is as jealous of any taint in a pure porcine strain as any 

 prince of the blood is of plebeian contamination. In both cases 

 the vitiation bars succession, the one condition of which is purity 

 of lineage. It is by the selection not only of the finest stock, but 

 also of the choicest individuals for breeding, that animals are 

 " progressively improved " both bodily and intellectually. This 

 is, perhaps, most clearly observable in hunting-dogs and race- 

 horses, which have undergone quite remarkable modifications 

 within the present century owing to the extraordinary pains 

 taken to develop and perfect their peculiar characteristics. In 

 some instances unusual births or freaks of nature are preserved, 

 and by persistently propagating themselves form the starting- 



