STUD BOOK. 49 



that like will produce like, that the progeny will 

 inherit the general or mingled qualities of the parents. 

 There are but few diseases by which either of the 

 parents are affected that the foal does not inherit or 

 show a predisposition to. Broken wind, spavins, ring- 

 bones, founders, blindness, roaring and the like, are 

 transmissible, there can be no question, not excepting 

 ill-usage and hard work. These blemishes may not 

 appear in the immediate progeny, but will in the next 

 or more distant generation. From this arises the 

 necessity of some knowledge of both the sire and the 

 dam. The most careless breeders have observed 

 qualities appearing in their stock that belonged to 

 neither sire nor dam, but which belonged to their 

 ancestry further back ; such as vicious temper, some 

 peculiar mark, white face or feet. Not only are dis- 

 eases inherited by the offspring, but the form, spirit, 

 constitution, and temper. *This maxim, however, 

 that "like begets like," is only true in part, as there 

 is a constant tendency to change, arising from differ- 



•D. J. Bowne, in Patent Office Official Eeport, 1864. 

 D 



