GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 13 



truth and his faith in the value of pedigree in 

 the human family when he says: "I go always, 

 other things being equal, for the man who in- 

 herits family traditions and the cumulative 

 humanities of at least four or five genera- 

 tions." To know that a man or woman is 

 descended from an old family whose record has 

 been honorable, beyond reproach and without 

 taint, is the very best possible evidence, next 

 to his own individual record, that he also is 

 worthy of confidence and respect; and a taint 

 in the blood of an opposite character should 

 certainly be regarded with as much distrust 

 as a similar taint in the blood of any of our 

 domestic animals, and for the same reasons. 

 What is "bred in the bone" will be transmit- 

 ted. Beauty of form and feature, strength and 

 force of intellect, elegance' and grace of motion, 

 integrity and honesty of character, suscepti- 

 bility of culture and refinement, or boorish 

 stupidity, as well as all the virtues and vices, 

 are as clearly transmissible and inheritable 

 qualities in man as are the color of the hair 

 and the shape of the body in horses and cattle. 

 A subject of such vital importance, involving 

 as it does so much of weal or woe to the human 

 race, and which places in the hands of intelli- 

 gent persons such power over the animal king- 

 dom, may well command the attention of 

 thinking men, aside from its practical value as 



