TREATMENT OF BREEDING COWS. 239 



"It may be remarked in conclusion, that the word imagination, 

 generally used to designate the mental states here concerned, is, 

 perhaps, an unfortunate one ; and it may be questioned whether 

 much of the scepticism prevalent among physiologists as to the 

 effects, or alleged effects, on the development of the foetus, of 

 certain complex mental affections, be not, in great part, owing to 

 the use of that term. Certain mental conceptions or ideas, sug- 

 gested to the mind, independently of any present or actual 

 external object, and exciting strong and enduring emotions, con- 

 stitute that state of mind, to denote which, imagination is used 

 here. Often, however, it is used to denote the power by which 

 the mind forms to itself pictures which have, in such a combina- 

 tion, no prototypes in nature the power of creative or poetical 

 imagination, which, manifestly, is not possessed by the brutes. 

 The state referred to here, that of simple imagination, is one 

 compounded only of simple conception and emotion." 



[NOTE. The reader may, perhaps, tire of this long, and some- 

 what philosophical, as well as speculative essay; but, in the 

 breeding of valuable stock, we wish to give all the information 

 which may instruct us in so important a branch of physiology. 



In addition to the several instances already narrated of the 

 influence on color of progeny in the course of gestation, Captain 

 Charles Bryant, of Fairhaven, Mass., recently related to us an 

 instance. A gentleman, residing in that vicinity, owning an island 

 in Buzzard's Bay, some miles off the coast, one summer sent a 

 considerable number of black cows, which were in calf to a 

 black bull, over there to graze, wishing to keep them by them- 

 selves, and breed calves of the same color. A dun-colored steer 

 was either sent with them, or a short time afterwards, and ranged 

 in their company all summer. When the calves were dropped, 

 every one of them was the color of the steer I So strangely will 

 influences, almost unaccountable, determine results adverse to 

 the most natural probabilities. L. F. A.] 



