418 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



of animals are but the experiences of past generations, that are accumulated and established 

 through inheritance. Many of the most valuable characteristics of the various improved 

 breeds of animals have been produced by the inheritance of habits of the system, arising 

 from the conditions and treatment to which they have been subjected. The remai-kable 

 records recently made by the American trotting-horse are the result of training and inheri 

 tance. The dairy breeds of cattle inherit a marked functional activity of the lacteal glands, 

 which is but a modified habit of the system. Pritchard, in his Natural History of Man, 

 states that the peculiar ambling pace to which the horses bred on the table-lands of the Cor 

 dilleras are trained has, by inheritance, resulted in a race in which the ambling pace is natu 

 ral and requires no teaching. The Norwegian ponies, descended from animals that have 

 been in the habit of obeying the voice of their riders and not the bridle, are said to inherit 

 the same peculiarity, so that it is difficult to break them to drive in the ordinary way. 



The habit. of migration at particular seasons of the year is inherited, and I have often 

 observed it in Mallard Ducks bred for several generations in a state of domestication. It 

 must be admitted, however, that acquired habits are not in all cases hereditary, but it would 

 be difficult, perhaps, in the present state of our knowledge of the subject, to fix a limit to 

 their inheritance, so far, at least, as a predisposition is concerned. Acquired habits and the 

 original traits of animals appear to be conflicting elements in their constitution, either one of 

 which may, from its intensity, predominate in hereditary transmission. Pigs have been 

 taught to point game and to perform various tricks, but, in the hereditary transmission of 

 their characters, nature has had a stronger influence than culture possibly could have done. 



Carpenter, in discussing the heredity of acquired habits, says: There seems to be 

 reason to believe that such hereditary transmission is limited to acquired peculiarities which 

 are simply modifications of the natural constitution of the race, and would not extend to 

 such as may be altogether foreign to it. From a practical point of view, however, the inher 

 itance of acquired characters, so far as they are of any value, is, fortunately, without any 

 apparent limit. Abnormal characters are frequently hereditary, but they are not so likely to 

 be transmitted as acquired habits that are in harmony with the original peculiarities of the 

 animal. 



The following examples will sufficiently illustrate this form of inheritance: Gracio Kel- 

 leia, the Maltese, was born with six fingers upon each hand, and a like number of toes to 

 each of his feet. He married when he was twenty-two years of age. The result of that 

 marriage was four children; the first, Salvator, had six fingers and toes like his father; the 

 second was George, who had five fingers and five toes, but one of them was deformed, show 

 ing a tendency to variation; the third was Andre he had five fingers and five toes, quite 

 perfect; the fourth was a girl, Marie she had five fingers and five toes, but her thumbs 

 were deformed, showing a tendency toward the sixth. These children grew up, and, when, 

 they came to adult years, they all married, and of course it happened that they all married 

 five-fingered and five-toed persons. Now let us see what was the result. Salvator had four 

 children they were two boys, a girl, and another boy the first two boys and the girl were 

 six-fingered and six-toed like their grandfather; the third boy had only five fingers and toes. 

 George had only four children; there were two girls with six fingers and six toes; there was 

 one girl with six fingers and five toes on the right side, and five fingers and five toes on the 

 left side, so that she was half-and-half. The last, a boy, had five fingers and five toes. The 

 third, Andre, you will recollect, was perfectly well formed, and he had many children whose 

 hands and feet were all regularly developed. Marie, the last, who of course married a man 

 who had only five fingers, had four children; the first, a boy, was born with six toes, but the 

 other three were normal. 



The fifth toe of Dorking fowls, which is one of the characteristics of the breed, has 

 been inherited, it is claimed, from a five-toed variety introduced into Britain by the Romans. 



