CHAPTER III. 

 REFLECTIONS ON HEREDITY. 



There is a well-known aphorism at least it is often quoted namely, 

 * a man cannot write much on a scientific subject without stating 

 something which others will not believe/' However, if \ve take the 

 researches of many oi our bush bred men, who never write on any 

 scientific subject, and who will not discuss scientific subjects with any- 

 one outside their own sphere of life, and yet whose observation-, are 

 most valuable to stock breeders on account of their high utility, we 

 find that they disregard largely the opinion of others in their ambition 

 to arrive at cause and effect. 



For instance, take the question of how the marsupials produce their 

 young. 7 .'f Professor Haeckel, causist though he may be, were to 

 travel in disguise as a bushman, and use only the language of the 

 bush, he would find some very knotty problems to solve before many 

 weeks had passed. Take, for example, the wonga wonga pigeon, 

 which is said to only produce one or two young each season. When 

 two young ones are found in a nest they are either both male or 

 female, but never male and female. That this fact has something to 

 do with the law of heredity almost goes without saying, as there is 

 a greater affinity of blood between brother and sister than between 

 mother and son or sire and daughter. Hence, in the wonga wonga 

 pigeon we have a natural check against in-and-in breeding to a great 

 extent, apart from migration. 



The laws of Nature generally have within themselves no power to 

 prevent variation. We have, therefore, a great increase in the variety 

 of animals and plants. But the reason why Nature should step in, as 

 in the case of the wonga wonga pigeon, and check in-breeding is a 

 problem not yet solved. It is, however, instructive as an object lesson, 

 and has led to much argument and practical experiment. 



Kant said : " It is absurd for a man to conceive the idea that even 

 some day a Newton will arrive who can explain the origin of a single 

 blade of grass by natural laws which are uncontrolled by design." 



The question is often asked : " What are the general conditions that 

 govern the hereditary characteristic of our dairy cattle ?" They may 

 be the same, theoretically speaking, as those that govern all animal 

 life. That passage in the Decalogue which declares that the iniquities 

 of the parents are visited upon the children unto the third and fourth 

 gneration must always be taken into consideration when any question 

 bearing on heredity is being reviewed. Yet science has done much 

 to rob that statement of much of its startling significance by guiding 

 stock raisers how to mate stud animals with a view of counteracting 

 hereditary taints. Then again, soil, climate, and environment are most 

 potent factors in the elimination of many apparently injurious ten- 

 dencies in the bovine race. 



Science, soil, climate, and environment, however, are of no avail 

 if not placed at the disposal of a practical man. Even then they are 



not such powerless agents as t> act as wax in his hands, lie will ex- 

 perience many disappointments. Mi- most cherished experiments will 

 often le eclipsed l>v some unknown cause the result of -ome unac- 

 countable, unseen influence of variation. 



r.rnce I .owe endeavoured to nring horse breeding within the range 

 of mathematical science when he worked out what is known as the 



178. 



