2 On the PoJfilUily of Mutilations in Boifies 



or the moft individual traits in family likcnefles, fuch rfs ^ 

 tliick under lip, ftrong ej-e-brows, and fo on, which certainly' 

 did not all defcend from Adam > but which have firft ap- 

 peared at a certain generation, and fincc that period have 

 been continued, with more or lefs conltaney, by hereditary 

 tranfmiflion. 



I. Iiijiances cnn-jng Animah. 



We are told by Sir Kenelm Digby*, that the tail of a caf 

 having been cut off when young, fofive of the kittens, which die' 

 afterwards brought forth, were always without tails. Nath. 

 Highmore \, who in explaining the nature of generation 

 differs fo much from Sir Kenelsi, favs tliat he fttw a bitch- 

 which wanted almofl the whole tail from the rump, and that 

 the half of her young were brought into the world with- 

 tails, and the other half without. Bufton % afferts that he 

 faw dogs, the ears and tails of whkh had been cropped for 

 many generations, and which transferred this mutilation, 

 either totally or in part, to their pofterity. 



ISI. R. Mafch, of New Strelitz, gives an account, in the 

 Naiurforfcher §, of a butcher's dog, the tail of which, ac-- 

 cordiilg to cuftom, had been cut off, and which having co- 

 pulated with a (he-wolf, that had been caught, the latter 

 produced three baftards^. Among thefe was a male, half 

 grcvlike the father, and born with a cropped tall; fo that the- 

 cafual mutilation of the dog, as tirie author fays> was tranf- 

 ferrcd to this baftard. 



We are to! J by D. Forfter \\, that it has been remarked in- 

 to the father, whether grey-hound, fpaniel, &:c. in regard to colovir and 

 bodily conformation ; and dferivcd nothing more from their mother, the 

 Spanifti bitch, than the nnguiaritj-of having only die third part of a tail, x. 

 no tail at all." 



• On the Nature of Bodies, p. i 14,. 



f Hiftory of Generation, p. 31. 



\ Hiftoire NaturcUe, vol. xir. 



§ Part XV. 



li Bcytrilg; z\n Volker-und LaivJer Kunde, Part i, 



EngUnd, 



