THE BREEDING AMD REARING OF COLTS. 187 



derived from three families ; of these the descendants of Messenger are 

 most strongly marked in hereditar}'^ trotting qualities. Among running 

 horses Eclipse begat 334, and Herod 497 winners. The hereditary trans- 

 mission of strongly marked peculiarities in races is conspicuously shown 

 in the Jews and in the Gypsies, who intermarr}-, each, only, among their 

 own race. Hence, says Ribot, "their distinguishing characteristics have 

 remained the same for centuries." So, certain breeds of sheep, as the 

 Spanish INIerinos, certain breeds of cattle, as the Dcvons, like certain 

 breeds of horses, are strongly characterized by their hereditary traits and 

 tendencies. 



V. Peculiar Organic Structure. 

 No loss remarkable is the tendency, sometimes seen, to inherit abnor- 

 mal organic structure. A peculiar structure of the ear, nervous system 

 and vocal organs, gave to the fariiily of Sebastian Bach, that power which 

 in eight generations produced no less than twenty-nine eminent singers. 

 Fecundity, length of life, abnormal peculiarities of members of the body, 

 day-blmdness, total blindness, peculiar forms of infirmity, and of disease, 

 are well known to be hereditary in some human families. According to 

 Finlcy Dun a tendency to consumption anddysentery in cattle is indicated 

 by certain well marked signs ; the most obvious of which, he says, are a 

 thin and long carcass, narrow loins and chest, flat ribs, a hollow appear- 

 ance at the flanks, extreme thinness and fineness of the neck and withers, 

 hollo wness behind the ears, fullness under the jaws and a small, narrow 

 muzzle. All these are indications of defective nutrition, and will apply 

 generally, not only to cattle, but to other animals ; and defective nutri- 

 tion is the parent of disease. 



VI. Heredity of Disease. 



Of 1000 cases of insanity noted in France, 530 were hereditary. In 

 the family of Le C'ompt, thirty-seven children and grand-children became 

 blind like himself, and in this case the blindness, for three successive 

 generations, occurred at about the age of seventeen or eighteen years. 



Blindness is well known to be hereditary in horses. Spavins, curbs, 

 ring-bones, strains of the back tendons, swelling of the legs and grease, 

 roaring, thick wind, chronic cough, partial as well as total blind 

 ncss, malignant and other tumors, epilepsy and various nei-^^ous affec 

 tions, are also distinctly hereditary in the horse, and often do not appear 

 until mature age. Hence, it is necessary to know that the stock you 

 breed from is not only sound, but that it came of sound ancestry ; for 

 disabilities may ^'<^ dormant for one, two or three generations, and then 

 appear. 



