" CLAYRABIAr AND " CLAYBEALE GRANT." 40 



seed, which may be at a high or low degree. To diminish the seed, is to 

 lower vitality or vigor of life. 



With many living things, coition between the sexes is certain death 

 to the male. He has given his seed, his life. This I learned in 1835 

 while breeding and growing silk-worms. The most beautiful and vig- 

 orous millers would come from the cocoons, and after one coition, death 

 was certain to the male, while the female lived on to lay her eggs. To 

 take the male and confine him alone, was to lengthen his life with con- 

 tinued vigor ; but the laws of re-creation demanded death through the 

 giving of life. I will continue from this treatise of 1600: 



The seed of the male is life ; if life, it is blood ; and the blood is what 

 is recognized as of importance in the breeding of animals. 



The virgin we will suppose to be as she usually is, pure as sun- 

 light, in her blood, to one type (for we are not now doing with mongrels, 

 only as we create them). 



Coition takes place between the male and a virgin female. The 

 seed is received into the uterus or womb, where it germinates into 

 blood, which, united with that of the virgin, becomes part of her life, 

 fed by her blood. Now, if this fcetus be in truth a part of the male, 

 then the life of his seed must contribute to the life of the growing fcetus. 

 The blood of the growing fcetus, representing both sire and mother, 

 passes back and forth with each pulsation of the heart of the mother, 

 through her entire system, feeding and replenishing her system to all 

 draughts upon it during the period of gestation, or up to maturity of 

 and birth of the foal. Now, if we say the new-born foal partakes of 

 the blood of the sire, and that blood has to a certain extent been feed- 

 ing the system of its mother for a period of eleven months, we have 

 a right to suppose that the blood of the sire of the new-born foal still 

 remains in the system of the virgin dam ; and from it, she must impart 

 to her next foal by some other horse. If this be not so, then it makes 

 no difference what the blood of the dam may be, so long as the sire is 

 all right; but such reasoning- as this would be against human reason; 

 or, if I am correct, then we have an explanation of atavism, or sporting 

 back. With me the argument is a fact ; and is one that should draw 

 attention from all breeders. More study with deeper thinking is what 

 is needed, and less "cross and cut-cross' business. 



It is supposed that the nerve-power is mostly given by the dam ; but 

 that is a blind supposition. If the dam be the better bred of the two, 

 as was usually the case when the well-bred Clay mare was prostituted 

 to colder blood, then she did contribute most of the nerve-power for 



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