204 NOTES ON FIELDS AND CATTLE. 



mother. Even had she been but chained within 

 sight of a Danish dog or other spotted variety, there 

 is a precedent for her being excited thereby, and a 

 consequent alteration occurring in the appearance of 

 her offspring. There are many such instances quoted 

 in that excellent little work of Milburn's on the cow. 

 In the wild state like associates with like. Hence 

 the various species have at least the chance of 

 escaping this imaginative contamination, which con- 

 strained association may bring about. It is conse- 

 quently considered among breeders of eminence 

 hazardous to allow a choice female of either species, 

 in that interesting condition, to consort with 

 others having any striking peculiarity of colour or 

 shape. 



A strong persuasion I have, further, which is, that 

 continual association alone will encourage the deve- 

 lopment of a likeness. Is it not patent to all that 

 husband and wife are apt to grow like one another, 

 not only in mind, and style, and taste, and habit, but 

 in feature ? If the theory of the phrenologist be 

 good, that you may expand and improve bumps by 

 practice, may it not be that the brain, exerting its 

 nervous energies in a similar direction constantly, 

 may cause a corresponding expansion of the pipes, 

 cells, and texture of the human physiognomy gene- 

 rally? Anyhow, I have noticed a man in charge of 

 lions at a menagerie, who grew as like a lion as pos- 

 sible in feature ; and I have seen, too, a pig-feeder 

 who seemed to have peered into the points of his 

 charge so frequently and effectually, that his visage, 

 aided in the first instance by the accidental advantage 



