BREEDING. 147 



a modification of the forms and attributes of the parents. 

 Therefore as the latter are, so will the former be. " Nor is it 

 necessary for transmission to offspring that any special form 

 or quality possessed by a parent should have been by him or 

 her inherited ; an improvement once established in an in- 

 dividual, whether by inheritance or as a result of special 

 management, is susceptible of transmission to succeeding 

 generations, and by careful and intelligent attention to the 

 selection of future partners for the offspring, the alteration may 

 be fixed and become a typical character of the improved race. 

 It must never be forgotten that not only are superior forms and 

 attributes transmitted from parents to progeny, but that de- 

 fects, malformations, and unsoundness, or the predisposition 

 thereto, seem to enjoy an especial privilege of reappearing in 

 succeeding generations. 



" Some persons regard the qualities and defects of breeding 

 animals in a relative, as well as in an absolute sense. For 

 instance, they agree that a malformed chest or mis-shapen limb 

 are defects absolute; but assert that flat feet are only positively 

 defective when possessed by a stallion intended to be put to a 

 mare having similar feet. And, further, that such faults are 

 to be considered rather as desirable qualifications in the partner 

 of an upright-footed mare. 



"Personally, I can admit of no such qualifications, and 

 believe it folly to expect that the mating of two animals, each 

 having opposite defects of any kind, can result in anything but 

 disappointment. Imperfections of conformation, constitution, 

 or temper, cannot be so corrected, but are to be very gradually 

 improved by careful attention to the selection of partners 

 possessing perfect organisation, to oppose defects, and, still 

 more, by the employment of well-directed external means cal- 

 culated to ameliorate the particular fault. 



" Physical and intellectual faculties, to be permanent, must 

 have been fixed by transmission from parent to progeny, 

 K 2 



