GENETICS AND BREEDING 161 



It is permissible to think that the fundamental 

 error involved was in the assumption we are all 

 inclined to make that any distinct advance in 

 science necessarily means an equally marked and 

 immediate advance in the practice of the associ- 

 ated art or craft. It is extremely difficult for the 

 man of the laboratory or the study, as he takes a 

 broad view of the history of the industrial arts, and 

 sees that great progress there has rested upon 

 fundamental scientific discoveries, to realize that 

 the art of breeding differs essentially in this re- 

 spect from the industrial arts. The breeding of 

 animals by man for more or less definite purposes 

 goes back to prehistoric times. Practically as 

 soon as primitive man began the domestication of 

 animals he must perforce have begun, in greater 

 or less degree, to control their breeding. Having 

 started thus early, the craft of breeding had at- 

 tained a relatively high degree of development 

 centuries before any attempt was made to for- 

 mulate the scientific principles of genetics. As 

 an example may be mentioned the breeding of 

 horses in England. It is customary to think of 

 "stallion laws," aimed at the improvement of 

 the horses of a state, as very modern and 

 American, and an indication of the influence of 

 the science of breeding on the practical craft. 

 But three hundred and seventy-odd years ago, in 

 the reign of Henry VIII, there was a "bill for the 

 breed of horses," which in preamble stated that : 



M 



