CHAP. in. TRANSMISSION OF DISEASE IN BREEDING. 419 



disease, blemish, or bodily defect : at least if there is the most remote 

 probability of its being transmitted to the offspring. It is even 

 necessary to descend to such minute details as the symmetry of the 

 head, neck, shoulder, forehead, ribs, back, loins, joints, and pasterns, 

 as well as a strict uniformity in the shape, make, and texture of the 

 hoofs ; and, if possible, even the temper and disposition should be 

 ascertained. It is also proper to examine the state of the wind, and to 

 endeavour to discover whether there is any tendency to spavins, curbs, 

 cracks, grease, corns, thrush, bad conformation of the feet, or long and 

 narrow-heeled hoofs. Any of these should furnish sufficient objections 

 against him for breeding purposes, however commendable he might be 

 in other respects. 



Blind stallions may sometimes get colts with good eyes, yet breed- 

 ing from them had better be avoided, as a hazardous experiment. A 

 well-informed writer in the Pantalogia states that, in the year 1773 or 

 1774, a great number of brood mares in his neighbourhood were covered 

 by a favourite blind stallion, belonging to the Honourable F. King, near 

 Kipley, in Surrey, whose pedigree, shape, make, figure, and qualifica- 

 tions were so perfect, that the want of e} r es scarcely seemed to constitute 

 an objection. The result, however, was, that, about the third or fourth 

 year, the major part of the colts got by this stallion had become as 

 blind as their sire. 



Anxious to ascertain the truth and extent of this hereditary trans- 

 mission of disease, Mr. Taplin bought a grey horse, called Jerry Sneak, 

 that had proved a tolerable runner while in the possession of Lord 

 Spencer Hamilton; and whose eyes were just beginning to fail. This 

 horse covered a few mares in the neighbourhood of Frimley, near Bag- 

 shot ; but it was found, in the fourth year, that most of the produce 

 were totally blind, and the remainder very likely to become so. The 

 fact, indeed, of the transmission of constitutional defects from both 

 sire and dam has been so fully established by frequent experiments as 

 to require no further corroboratioii ; nor does it apply to blindness 

 alone. 



On the subject of crosses there are various opinions. It was said by 

 the greatest breeder in this country, Mr. Bakewell, and deduced from 

 long and attentive experience, " that to cross with a breed not decidedly 

 better than the other should never be attempted ; but, if a superior 

 breed could be obtained, it was a truly desirable measure." In these 

 sentiments he was joined by the late Mr. Campbell, of Charlton, also 

 an excellent judge, who thus expresses himself in some letters on the 

 subject addressed to Lord Egremont : " As to^the art and mystery of 

 generation, or conception, all that I pretend to know and that I do, 

 by many experiments, to a certainty know is, that ill shapes and 

 properties of a particular breed, when introduced into others, even by 

 a single cross, will continue to have effect, sometimes more, sometimes 

 less, and sometimes lurking for generations, scarce perceivable, or even 

 totally out of sight or feeling, and then break out in some individual 

 as strongly, and with as bad effect, as if there had never been any further 

 mixture or addition of blood on the other side. I therefore consider 



E E 2 



