GUENON'S SYSTEM. 83 



The following language was used by the Committee 

 on Agriculture in their report to the French National 

 Assembly upon " Guenon's Theory of the Milk-Giv- 

 ing Properties of Cows " : 



"Admitted by our most learned veterinarians of 

 the Royal College of Alfort and elsewhere, encour- 

 aged by the Government, confirmed by a thousand 

 proofs, and sanctioned by your approval, the dis- 

 covery of M. Guenon may now be considered as 

 having reached the dignity of a science. It applies 

 alike to males and females, to calves and full-grown 

 animals ; and from this last fact we may make this 

 fruitful deduction : Hereafter the farmer need rear 

 none but such calves as will make good milkers, hand- 

 ing over to the butcher such as will not." 



If Francis Guenon could inspire such enthusiasm 

 and conviction in those appointed to examine into the 

 merits of his claims, what may not be allowed to him- 

 self? He says, " It did not suffice to have discovered 

 signs that were characteristic of different sorts of cows ; 

 it was necessary to make sure that the same mark 

 might always be relied upon as a positive and certain 

 sign of the same perfection or defect. This could 

 not be effected except by studying a vast number of 

 individuals, by comparing them together, taking into 

 consideration the countries from which they came, 

 their stature, their yield. This was not all ; they had 

 to be classed. Conceive what toil this task involved 

 for me, a plain child of nature, who had no idea of 

 such a classification, and found myself under the 

 necessity of establishing one. The endeavor was one 



