CHAPTER VII 

 HEREDITY 



THE characteristics of the individual are determined 

 by heredity and development. What an animal may 

 become, depends on the heritage received from its 

 ancestors. No organic being can be developed beyond 

 the limits imposed upon it by its inheritance. A favor- 

 able environment and good training will permit the 

 individual to achieve the full limit of its possibilities, 

 but no amount of training and no combination of favor- 

 able circumstances can ever lift the individual above the 

 inheritance which it has gained through its parents. 

 The trotting horse may have inherited the capacity to 

 trot a mile in two minutes, but if its development has 

 been arrested by insufficient food and an unfavorable 

 climate, and no attempt has been made to develop its 

 inherent ability to go fast, it can never achieve the full 

 measure of its possibilities. It is also true that if a horse 

 has not inherited from a line of trotting ancestors the 

 ability to go fast at the trot, no amount of training and 

 no system of feeding can develop the animal to a point 

 where it will be able to trot a mile in two minutes. 



Heredity then represents what an animal really is or 

 can become. The individual cannot in any manner or 

 to any extent influence its own heredity. An animal's 

 inheritance is determined by its ancestors. The indi- 



131 



