56 . EEPORTS. / 



mant. Hence, in breeding, the rule is, tliat like produces like, 

 or the likeness of some ancestor. . . . Tlicrcfore, the 

 purer or less mixed the blood or breed, the more likely is it to 

 be transmitted unaltered to the offspring. Hence, wliichever 

 of the progenitors is of tlic purer blood, that one will generai- 

 I'j be better represented in the offspring ; but as the male is 

 usually more carefully selected and of purer blood than the 

 female, it follows that he exerts more influence tlian she docs ; 

 the reverse being true when she is of less mixed blood than the 

 sire. . . . The influence of the first impregnation seems 

 to extend to the subsequent ones ; this lias been proved by 

 several experiments, and is especially marked in the equine 

 genus. In the series of examples preserved in the Museum of 

 the College of Surgeons, the markings of tlie male qungga, 

 when united with the ordinary mare, are continued clearly for 

 three generations beyond the one in which the quagga Avas the 

 actual sire ; and they are so clear as to leave the question 

 settled Avithout a doubt. . . . When some of the elements 

 of which an individual sire is composed are in accordance with 

 others making up those of the dam, they sometimes coalesce in 

 such a kindred way as to make what is called a ' hit.' On the 

 other hand, when they are too incongruous, an animal is tho 

 result wholly unfitted for the task he is intended to perform." 

 Herbert in " The Horse of America," adduces several in- 

 stances in which a " hit " has occurred, by carrying out the 

 last axiom cited above. He says, " I think that it is clear by 

 recent events, that, previous to the last quarter of a century, 

 (1857) the American turfman was breeding in loo nuich of the 

 old Virginian and South Carolinian ante-revolutionary stock, 

 and that the American racehorse has been improved by the re- 

 sent cross of modern English blood. It is also worthy of re- 



