272 The Trotting and the Pacing Horse 



are tenderly guarded and used in reproductive 

 channels. The tendency to infirmity is thus 

 multiplied, and the Register is filled with animals 

 hardly worth the price of registration. Some 

 insects, as is well known, live only to propagate 

 their kind and then die. The life of the male 

 bee goes out with the shock of fertilization. If 

 weak and worthless stallions were subject to the 

 bee law, the monstrous error of reproducing them- 

 selves with slight variations would not be re- 

 peated. Another important question is why 

 brothers and sisters are not of equal merit.. 

 Every year brings disappointment to scores who 

 hold that one brother should accomplish as much 

 as another brother. They forget the force of 

 external surroundings. Nutrition plays an im- 

 portant part in development, and so does an 

 atmosphere conducive to the building up of the 

 nervous system. The condition of the mother 

 while carrying the colt, environment after foaling, 

 and the quality of the food given will have their 

 influence and may account for the difference in 

 the family group. I believe with Weismann that 

 each organism possesses the power to react on 

 the different external influences with which it is 

 brought in contact. As the use of organs in- 



