304 DADD'S VETERINARY MEDICINE AND SURGER*. 



weak foal should run with its mother for a longer period than 

 one that shows signs of vigorous health. Should the foal die at 

 the period of parturition, humanity would seem to suggest that 

 the mare be excused from duty for a week or two, by which time 

 she will have recovered from the effects of parturi J ior. 



The Principles of Breeding. 



It is a law of Nature that peculiarities of form, size, color, etc., 

 shall be transmitted by parents to offspring, (" like begets like,") 

 although, under certain circumstances, a modification of this law 

 is to be expected. If, for example, we liberate an animal from 

 domestication and its influences, which are known to operate very 

 markedly on animal organizations and habits, the creature thus lib- 

 erated loses its acquirements, and, in successive generations, grad- 

 ually returns to the original type. This is a modification of the 

 above law, and, supposing our pecuniary interests are the object of 

 the experiment, it will be an improvement in the wrong direction. 



On the other hand, take a wild animal ; bring him under the 

 influences^of domestication, and he gradually loses all his distinc- 

 tive characteristics of size, form, and instinct, and, in popular 

 language, becomes a new creature, improved or not, as the case 

 may be, under the direction of his lord and master ; so that the 

 inferior orders of creation are really the creatures of circumstances. 

 These changes are the result of man's experience or non-expe- 

 rience. These are general propositions which "precede beauty 

 and symmetry." 



Beauty and Symmetry. — If we examine into the methods pur- 

 sued by some of the most successful raisers of live stock, we shall 

 see that they paid particular attention to the selection of well- 

 formed, beautiful animals. They very naturally supposed that ex- 

 ternal conformation was transmissible; that if they happened to 

 obtain a good calf or foal from inferior, diseased, or malformed 

 parents, it was purely accidental, and out of the ordinary course 

 of Nature. In selecting beautiful animals, they naturally excluded 

 those 01 narrow chest, which peculiarity is indicative of predispo- 

 sition to pulmonary affections and founder (the latter term signi- 

 fying a worthless or ruined condition, which, in the eye of the 

 law, renders them actually unsound), because they have that about 

 them which may impair their future usefulness. Hence, for nvre 



