130 



The Journal of Heredity 



last has become a supplicant for its 

 existence. 



HORSE BREEDING AT LOW EBB 



Economical conditions counted with 

 the war would seem to be the final 

 stroke to the decadence of breeding 

 horses. It is estimated that 4 acres 

 of the best land is required to pasture 

 one horse during the grazing season, 

 that is from April to December; then 

 the expense of feeding during the winter 

 additional. This class of land planted 

 to tobacco will now yield a net profit of 

 $200 per acre, to hemp 8150. In fact 

 svich land readily rents for these crops at 

 S50 to S75 per acre. These crops are 

 matured and marketed in eight months, 

 whereas the horse must be three years 

 old before the Government will pay $150 

 for him, and then must be sound and of 

 good conformation. Land that nets in 

 tobacco S200 per acre for three years 

 would figure the cost of each three-year- 

 old $2,400 for grazing only, that is, the 



land required to produce one three-year 

 old would net the owner $2,400. Conse- 

 quently the only chance of profit in 

 breeding is to produce the exceptional 

 horse that will bring more than this 

 amount. Unfortunately the pure bred 

 animals have not reached that state of 

 perfection where predictions are ful- 

 filled with sufficient constancy to reduce 

 the percentage of by-product to a point 

 where profit can be made. 



STEPS TAKEN IN CANADA 



Canada has begun to eliminate horse 

 breeding, to take up breeding of dairy 

 stock. In fact, any other agricultural 

 pursuit now promises more than horse 

 breeding. This is no idle carping of dis- 

 gruntled breeders, but plain facts stated 

 far less forcefully than conditions de- 

 mand. It is rather an appeal of patri- 

 otism to save one of the most efficient 

 aids to win this horrible war and an in- 

 dispensable necessity in peace. 



Inheritance of Diathesis through Five Generations 



An interesting addition is made to 

 cases where a tendency toward disease 

 seems to be definitely inherited by the 

 report of Drs. Joseph R. and Thomas 

 R. Crowder in ArcJiives of Internal 

 Medicine of angioneurotic edema occur- 

 ing through five generations. The dis- 

 ease is characterized b}^ transient local 

 swellings in various parts of the body, 

 generally accompanied by gastro-in- 

 tcstinal disturbances. The etiology is 

 obscure. 



About 1820, being a young man and 

 recently married, J. C, took a contract 

 in a logging camp of Pennsylvania. 

 He had an attack of illness which was 

 believed to be quinsy, in which the 

 neck was greatly swollen. From that 

 time on, the swellings were repeated 

 at various intervals, invading all parts 

 of the body, and proved fatal through 

 the involvement of the throat twenty 

 years after the first attack. Previous 

 to his attack in the logging camrs, he 

 had never suffered any such malady, 



and there was no record of such trouble 

 in his family or rclati^'es. 



This man was father of ten children, 

 all but one son were afflicted with this 

 peculiar malady and seven of them 

 died from its effects. Seven members 

 of this generation left children aggre- 

 gating twenty-nine, and of these, twelve 

 were afflicted. In only one of the 

 seven groups of children were all the 

 children free from the disease. In the 

 fourth generation there were seven 

 groups of children comprising eighteen 

 children. Nine of these are descended 

 from affected parents of whom five 

 have the disease. The nine descended 

 from unaffected parents are all free. 

 The fifth generation contains up to the 

 present time only six members. Three 

 are daughters of an unaffected mother 

 and are all free from the disease. Three 

 others arc the daughters of an affected 

 mother and only one of those has so 

 far shown an\' taint. 



