202 AMERICAN CATTLE. 



general principle, and also from various statistical tables, giving 

 the results of intermarriages between blood relations, in the 

 decline of stamina, physical power, and mental vigor of the 

 parents, in their descendants. Some of these statistical tables 

 may be true ; others may be highly colored with the bias of 

 opinion or prejudice entertained by those who made them. 

 These statements might be more or less controverted, by close 

 inquiry into the various circumstances in which the parents were 

 placed, and the modes of life and education to which such fami- 

 lies, both in parent and offspring, were subjected. 



We do not propose to combat the prejudices above named, 

 nor are we disposed to yield to all the sweeping conclusions to 

 which the objections are carried, either in theory or apparent 

 fact. There are certain physical parallels running through both 

 the human family and the brute creation, to which the same 

 rules may, either directly, or remotely apply; but not all rules; 

 and we may name some of these parallels, with the differences 

 which apply to them. Let us see with how much justice. 



Man is far more nicely constituted in his bodily functions than 

 the lower orders of animals. He attains much greater longevity 

 than the most of them. He is liable to infinitely more 'diseases, 

 and those diseases are more complicated in kind, origin, treat- 

 ment and result. The chances of life, from infancy to a state of 

 puberty, are far less in human than in the brute creation, from 

 numberless circumstances unnecessary here to mention. He is 

 endowed with thought, sentiment, understanding, sympathies, 

 imagination, as well as instinct and passion. These qualities are 

 all which need to be enumerated for our present purpose. 



The lower orders of animals are less subject to casualties of 

 life or limb; less liable to disease; less exposed to danger in 

 bringing forth their young; less helpless in infancy, and sooner 

 able to provide for their own natural wants. They have little 

 thought; no great degree of sense; little reasoning faculty; 



