ESSAY ON THE STALLION. 87 



fact which forms at once a criterion of skill in the 

 scientific breeder, and a stumbling-block to the 

 ignorant and unreasonable one, who would expect 

 success without giving himself the trouble of inves- 

 tigating the natural laws which govern the subject 

 of his operations : such a person is too apt to argue 

 within himself, that because the same parents at 

 different times produce offspring of opposite char- 

 acteristics, there can be no certain rules by which 

 to create determinate qualities in the progeny : 

 such a one would maintain that, because all the 

 children of one married couple are usually some- 

 what different in characteristics from each other, 

 there can be no means of predicting with an ap- 

 proach to certainty, the qualities to be produced 

 in the offspring by a particular sexual intercourse. 

 Now this laic of condition accounts for the differ 

 ence between individuals produced at several 

 births from the same parents. The case of twins, 

 in the human species, serves to strengthen this 

 argument, inasmuch as the two persons produced 

 at one birth, usually bear a close resemblance to 

 each other, in all respects. 



It is well known that ideal impressions on the 

 female parent, subsequent to conception, fre- 

 quently take permanent effect on the offspring 

 That such causes do not usually give the leading 

 characteristics to the progeny, is evident from 

 these considerations : 



1st. The consequences of such impressions on 

 the female, are usually somewhat of an unnatural 

 or monstrous order, being different from the traits 

 of either parent, and from the common nature of 

 the variety to which the animals belong. 



2d. It is a settled point with breeders that the 

 progeny is more strongly characterized by the 

 traits of the male than by those of the female 



