368 PRINCIPLES OF STOCK-BREEDING. 



or no effect upon animals that have not been subject- 

 ed to artificial conditions in their management. 



It does not follow, however, that the constitution 

 is impaired by diminishing the size of the bones, or 

 that an increase in their size adds to its general 

 vigor. 



All the best qualities of the improved breeds, as 

 has been shown elsewhere, have been obtained by 

 artificial treatment, that tended to disturb the equi- 

 librium of the system, and produce changes in the 

 functional activity of the most important organs that 

 give rise to modifications of the structure, that are not 

 observed under what may be called the normal condi- 

 tions of existence, 



A greater degree of refinement and delicacy of 

 one set of organs involves a similar change in other 

 organs, through the influence of the same modifying 

 agencies which affect the entire system; and these, 

 when acting in excess, may produce a sensitiveness or 

 delicacy of the organization as a whole, that we recog- 

 nize as a defect of constitutional vigor. 



An excessive refinement of the bones would there- 

 fore indicate a delicacy and over-refinement of the 

 general system. 



In discussing the details of external form, with 

 reference to the qualities indicated by peculiarities in 

 the development of particular parts, we will, in the 

 first place, examine the points of the improved Short- 

 Horns, as they may be fairly assumed to represent the 

 type of the meat-producing breeds in their most im- 

 portant characters. 



The peculiarities of other allied breeds will only 



