CAVALRY HORSES. 167 



Mongrels bred upon half-breeds communicate most of the vices and infirmi- 

 ties of their blooded ancestry and few of their virtues, and a second or third 

 out-cross generally loses all trace of the original good blood. 



The exemplification of this can be found nowhere more sharply defined than 

 in the crossing of the Caucasian with a lower type of humanity. The first 

 cross results in a man inferior to the pure Caucasian, but superior to the 

 Chinese, the Indian, or the negro, from whom he may have sprung. The sec- 

 ond cross is with another mongrel, produces a being inferior to either race 

 Persistent commingling with the same blood destroys all traces of the Cauca- 

 sian clement, and, in the case of the negro, at least leads to scrofula, impotence, 

 and death. 



There has been from time to time much discussion among turf authorities 

 on the question as to which of the two breeding animals, the blood of both 

 being equal, the sire or the dam, has the greater influence upon the organiza- 

 tion of the foal. Able pens have defended both sides, and the question re- 

 mains a mooted one. 



Stonehenge, a noted authority on breeding, says : 



" As the male and female each furnish their quota to the formation of the embryo it is rea- 

 sonable to expect that cacli shall be represented in it, which is i'ouud to be the case in nature ; 

 but, as the food of the euibrjo entirely depends upon the mother, it may be expected that the 

 health of the ofi'spring and its constitutional powers will be more in accordance with her state 

 than with that of the father; yet, since the sire furnishes one half of the original germ, it is 

 not surprising that in externals and general character there is retained a/«c simile to a certain 

 extent of him." 



"The influence of the male upon the embryo is partly dependent upon the fact that he 

 famishes a portion of its substance in the shape of a sperm-cell, but also in great measure 

 upon the etfect exerted upon the nei"vous system of the mother by him. Hence, the preponder- 

 ance of one or other of the parents will in great measure depend upon the greater or less 

 strength of nervous system in each. No general law is known by which this can be measured, 

 nor is anything known of the laws which regulate the temperament, bodily or mental power, 

 color or conformation of the resulting olispring." 



It must be considered that outward circumstances and accidents may fur- 

 nish exceptional cases to all rules, where everything is equal between the two 

 animals ; where they have the same purity of blood, the same degree of vital 

 power, the same general temperament, &c., the dam unquestionably furnishes 

 the internal organization, the blood, and viscera ; and the sire gives the exter- 

 nal form and appearance. The stallion, however, in most cases, has more 

 vital power and nervous strength than the mare, and exerts his individuality 

 more than she at the moment of depositing the germ. For this reason colts 

 resemble their sires more frequently than their dams, where the parents "nick," 

 as breeders say. 



To "nick" is to reproduce their best qualities in the foal. This docs not by 

 any means always happen, even where both animals are of the purest blood. 

 The celebrated English stallion West Australian — a marvellous horse, winner 

 of the Derby and the St. Leger, of the same year — failed to nick with some of 

 the finest mares in Great Britain. Only a few of his colts possess any of his 

 virtues. The same was the case with Priam, very few of whose colts from 

 our best American mares partook of all his excellence. Instances might be 

 multiplied ad infinitum. 



An extraordinary case of nicking was that of Van Galen, in England, with 

 the dam of Tim Whiffler. This was his only successful nick for that year ; 

 but the colt, Tim Whiffler, won nine times at three years old, and carried 

 off more than twenty thousand dollars and the Queen's v&se at Ascot. The 

 stallion Stockwell, on the contrary, was successftil with a great number of 

 mares, producing in the same year as many as thirty-two winning horses, 

 which realized over one hundred and sixty thousand dollars for their propri- 

 etors. 



