145 



And this does not extend merely to physical or- ■ 

 ganization, but is equally true of mental character- 

 istics, and also extends to the propagation of the 

 diseased condition, or predisposition to the diseases 

 of the parents. There is scarcely a malady to which 

 the horse is subject which is not hereditary, or to 

 which a predisposition, at least, may not be trans- 

 mitted. This is most certainly true of thick wind, 

 roaring, blindness, spavin, curb, contracted feet, 

 grease, and many other diseases ; and particularly 

 of viciousness. But as the male only furnishes the 

 vivifying principle (the pollen) to the egg (the ovum) 

 of the female, w^hile the female furnishes the nutri- 

 ment of the embryo animal from her own secretions, 

 we would naturally expect the offspring to partake 

 more of the qualities of the female than of the male. 

 And this fact shows that the selection of a mare to 

 breed from is of more importance than the selection 

 of the horse to breed to ; a truth which seems to have 

 been almost entirely overlooked, practically, at least 

 in this country, for we find that farmers, as a general 

 thing, instead of breeding their best mares, keep 

 them for labor, and breed those which are unfit for 

 labor on account of their age, their viciousness, or 

 even their positively diseased condition. Hence, 

 although very good stallions are to be found in every 

 part of our country, at least four-fifths of all our 

 horses bear evident marks of hereditary disease, mal- 

 formation, or viciousness. Though the defects of 



