EVOLUTION ENVIRONMENT, NUTRITION 



dam of the famous race horse American Eclipse, 

 was a daughter of imp. Messenger. As Messenger 

 was a runner, from running ancestors, why was he 

 so potent in founding a family of trotters? This 

 question has been hotly debated for years, and, as 

 a matter of course, opinions differ. The Weismann 

 theory of absolute continuity will not do. " No evo- 

 lutionist," says Romaine, " would at any time have 

 propounded the view that one generation depends 

 for all its characters on those acquired by its imme- 

 diate ancestors, for this would merely be to unsay 

 the theory of evolution itself, as well as to deny the 

 patent facts of heredity, as shown, for example, in 

 atavism." Speed is largely a matter of form and 

 nervous energy, and the conformation and tempera- 

 ment of Messenger were such as to favor the utiliza- 

 tion of speed at any well-recognized speed gait. En- 

 vironment exercised some control. If racing had not 

 been practically dead in the North when Messenger 

 landed in America, his progeny would have been 

 trained or developed to run on the track, instead of 

 utilized in harness, and we would have witnessed a 

 continuity of running growth, in place of the steady 

 advancement of trotting growth. It is true that trot- 

 ting is in a measure an acquired character, but in 

 the case of Messenger we cannot wholly separate 

 it from congenital roots. Through generations of 

 cultivation and use the character is intensified, and 

 the present highest exponent of the cumulative force 

 is Lou Dillon. The persistent efforts of a century 



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