SELECTION OF BREEDING ANIMALS. 275 



is nearly as bad. I always think that there is 

 little or no profit in a beast with a contracted 

 chest and that shows a tightness back of the 

 shoulder. That constricted look, as if a surcin- 

 gle had been tightly bound around the animal 

 and had left a permanent impression, is one 

 especially distasteful to me as indicating this 

 want of thrift. 



But much of this inquiry must needs be left 

 to the good faith of the person from whom the 

 purchase is made, unless some unusual chan- 

 nels of knowledge are open in the special case. 

 If there are any reasons for fearing any of the 

 more serious diseases being congenital in the 

 family the quicker the animal in question is 

 passed by the better. 



But there are other things to be inquired 

 into besides healthfulness. We have seen in 

 the earlier part of this book that fecundity 

 was as heritable as any other quality, and that 

 infecundity tended to increase in transmission, 

 and that all unhealthy conditions were of great 

 danger as inclining to deepen the unfruitful- 

 ness, generation by generation, till the race 

 went out in true infertility. There is no worse 

 taint in the blood of animals when the object 

 for which they are valued and cultivated is the 

 reproduction of their kind. It behooves every 

 one, then, who is about to purchase stock to 

 make all possible investigation and be sure that 



