[girdwood] right and LEFT HANDEDNESS 183 



The numbers obtained from this list although only just 3,000 horses, 

 are a sufficient average to call for furtlier attention. These numbers 

 were obtained by direct application to the different veterinary officers in 

 charge, and their personal examination and answers, it is a pity more 

 answers were not forth-coming. A similar application to the forces in 

 England and to the Eoyal College of Veterinary Surgeons received for 

 answer no records of the kind were obtainable. It may be asked what 

 lias this observation to do with right and left-handedness in man, to 

 those who would ask, the answer is, that as man gets older and the vital 

 forces become lessened, the man becomes gray haired and if his life be 

 continued he at last becomes quite while and the powers of life have be- 

 come much weaker. 



This is apparently the case, not only in animal, but in vegetable 

 life. The fact that absence of pigment in life where pigment usually is 

 fceen is evidence of weakness. 



There is a common saying about white-footed horses: 



One white leg buy him. 



Two white legs try him. 



Three white legs deny him. 



Four white legs, throw him to the dogs. 



As the hind legs are those most commonly white the weakness is 

 more observable in the fore legs than in the hind and the .remarks made 

 by the different veterinarians go to show that a tendency to navicular 

 disease is common in the white fore-legged horses — that the white- 

 legged horses are generally washy — that the roan coloured horses and 

 the buff are constitutionally the strongest, with brown next. 



Report comes this spring from the west communicated by Dr. Mc- 

 Eachran, from which the following is quoted : " In the car this morn- 

 "ing, I met Mr. D. N. Campbell, live stock agent, who asked me if I 

 " had noticed last winter and spring whether or not the greatest mortality 

 " among our range cattle was in the light coloured ones. He said, George 

 " Lane, of Gordon & Ironsides' U ranch, told him that with them 90 per 

 " cent of the dead cattle from the severity of the winter were white and 

 *' light roan in colour." 



Absence of pigment where pigment is usually found is an evidence 

 of lessened -vitality. 



Potato shoots grown in the dark are thin, long and white, easily 

 destroyed. 



All plants grown in the dark are weakly and are deprived more or 

 less of chlorophyl. 



