47C THE HORSE OF AMERICA. 



dealer, or possibly the breeder, and there to conceal the fact that 

 the blood of his kennel was not pure, he would naturally play 

 the rogue and admit that the young bitch might have got astray. 

 This satisfies the unsophisticated owner, and another trick of an 

 unscrupulous "dog jockey" goes on record as a case of "heredity 

 of influence," when in fact it was nothing more nor less than a 

 dirty fraud in the breeding of the dog or bitch, or both. 



Some of the early French writers on scientific subjects, as 

 Burdach, Michelet, etc., advanced t'he theory more than a hun- 

 dred years ago that the children of a second marriage, in some 

 cases, inherited the resemblance and character of the first hus- 

 band. In the nature of things this theory could have but very 

 feeble support and that chiefly among scandalmongers. In con- 

 nection with this phase of "heredity of influence" I will give a 

 little instance of my personal experience. Twenty years ago, or 

 more, I was making an address before an association, in a New Eng- 

 land city, on the subject of "How to Breed the Trotting Horse." 

 The audience was very large and composed exclusively of gentle- 

 men. At the opening it was announced that at the close of each 

 specific topic an opportunity would be given to any one in the 

 audience to ask questions on the thoughts presented. The signal 

 had hardly been given when a gentleman arose in the audience 

 and raised the question whether I had not omitted an important 

 fact in heredity? He then went on to rehearse the everlasting 

 quagga story, with a most confident flourish of his learning and a 

 sure grasp on a triumph. 



"The quagga story," I remarked, "is well known to everybody, 

 but there are some facts about it that are not known to anybody. 

 The mare herself may have been from a dun tribe of horses, or 

 the horse to which she was afterward bred may have been from 

 such a tribe, hundreds of which have stripes on the back, the 

 shoulders and the legs, and thus the stripes might be accounted 

 for by indirect heredity; not because the quagga had stripes, but 

 because the dun horse ancestry had stripes. Most people, proba- 

 bly, look upon it as a freak of nature, and as the case has never 

 duplicated itself, in all the years before or since, it fails to be a 

 practical question, and in our personal experiences as breeders, 

 we need not be afraid of suffering harm from it." 



"Your explanation," replied my interlocutor, "fails to cover 

 the case, I think, for I have seen, with my own eyes, instances 

 of it in the human family and I will relate one. A dozen years 



