36 THE STi^LLION AND BROOD MARE. 



be insisted on, that certain innate but not preternatura* 

 virtue peculmrly lelonging to some horses, but not tft 

 others, whicli, when it meets with no opposition from the 

 mare — or, in the language of the stable, where « the cross 

 nicks' by the mare admit of a junction of good shapes — 

 seldom fails in producing a race-horse in his very best 

 form." 



After all, when the reader shall have carefully perused 

 the following disquisition, he will, w^e think, be apt to 

 concur with us in the belief that incalculable loss and 

 deterioration ensue from an almost universal want of 

 attention to the condition of the stallion, and from igno- 

 rance in what true condition consists. The maxim of 

 the feeder of the ox may be embraced in the words 

 warmth, cleanliness and quiet. Not so with the grazier 

 of 5^ocA:-cattle — for they may be kept too warm ; nor 

 with the owner of a Stallion ; yet too generally they 

 manage him as if he had nothing to do but to eat, drink, 

 and sleep — except when suddenly aroused to go through 

 violent agitation to the opposite extreme. 



— On the subject of the comparative agency of the 

 male and female parent in the modification of the progeny 

 in form and character, as sir Roger expressed it " much 

 may be said on both sides." There needs no citation 

 of instances to show^ the influence of the male progenitor 

 in modifying the exterior form and colour, of the off 

 spring, aAd may we not infer it in regard to its intern?^ 

 structure, its temper and character? Neither can we 

 deny the share of the female parent in the same influences 

 — see how often the calf, in its marks, exhibits an exact 

 copy of its dam. But there are cases of what is called 

 sitperfoetation, which go to show some extraordinary 

 power of the male in transmitting his influence even to 

 the second and third generation on the fruits of subst> 

 i^iient conceptions from sexual intercourse b<Jtween thf 



