192 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVII. No. 683 



less, according to the laws of priority, must 

 stand. The " toothless diver " of Marsh was 

 far from being toothless, as is shown by the 

 splendid material in the Carnegie Museum, as 

 well as by Professor Marsh's own type speci- 

 men. 



W. J. Holland 

 Caenegie Museum, 

 January 6, 1908 



"trotting and pacing, dominant and 

 recessive ? " 



To THE Editor of Science: I have noted 

 with interest, in your issue for December 27, 

 on page 908, the communication of Mr. W. 

 Bateson, under the caption " Trotting and 

 Pacing, Dominant and Recessive ? " Regard- 

 ing it I would beg to say that his informants 

 who state that they have " never known a 

 natural trotter produced by two natural 

 pacers," while stating the results of their own 

 experience, have, in that experience, missed, 

 very evidently, a result that is not uncommon 

 in the breeding of harness horses. I have 

 personally known of numerous cases in which 

 the produce from the mating of natural pacers 

 has produced a natural trotter; and, as a mat- 

 ter of direct evidence, may cite a case which 

 has very lately come under my notice. 



One of the most celebrated pacing stallions 

 of recent times is Direct Hal. He never lost 

 a race and his record, 2.04^, made in the first 

 and only season (1902) that he was raced, has 

 never been beaten by a stallion under the 

 same conditions. Direct Hal was a natural 

 pacer. His sire, Direct, was a natural trotter, 

 and was first trained to trot, and given a 

 record of 2.18J at that gait. He was then 

 taught to pace and given a record of 2.05J 

 at that gait. He was himself a trotting-bred 

 horse, but the majority of his get have been 

 pacers. The dam of Direct Hal was Bessie 

 Hal, a pacing mare, and pacing bred with the 

 exception of a trotting cross on her dam's side. 



One of the most celebrated pacing mares of 

 recent times is Lady of the Manor. She won 

 nearly all her races and also took a record of 

 2.04J; which, when made (1899), was the fast- 

 est on record for a pacer of her sex. She was 

 by Mambrino King, a trotting horse, with but 



a remote and attenuated pacing inheritance. 

 Her dam was also a trotting mare, strongly 

 trotting bred and with no near, or, supposedly, 

 influential, pacing blood. Nevertheless, Lady 

 of the Manor was a natural pacer. As she 

 was bred to trot, she was first trained to trot; 

 hobbles and heavy shoes and toe-weights being 

 used to force her to adopt that gait, but the 

 effort was unsuccessful. She was then al- 

 lowed to pace, with the result above noticed. 



After their retirement from racing, these 

 two remarkable pacers were mated, and one 

 of their produce, a filly, foaled in 1905, is now 

 owned by a gentleman of my acquaintance, 

 resident in this city, who has her in training 

 at a farm near here. Both this gentleman 

 and his trainer inform me that this filly is a 

 square trotter, that has, since under their ob- 

 servation, never been seen to pace, either in 

 or out of harness. 



This is only one case of a number of sim- 

 ilar ones that could be cited. 



The whole question of the relation between 

 the trot and the pace is a perplexing one. I 

 have, I may say, devoted many years to its 

 study, during which I have been afforded an 

 embarrassment of riches so far as material 

 for investigation was concerned. During this 

 period I have at various times been of various 

 opinions, which, for the time being, I have 

 believed to be definitely established, but have 

 again and again been unsettled as new evi- 

 dence, not to be gainsaid, has presented itself. 

 One thing is, however, incontestably true, viz., 

 that pacers are much oftener produced by 

 trotting parents, than trotters by pacing pa- 

 rents. Personally, I much doubt what Mr. 

 Bateson says he has been given to understand 

 — "that the distinction between the natural 

 trotter and the natural pacer is so definite 

 that doutbful cases are exceptional " — and con- 

 sider the reverse to be, if anything, as prob- 

 able. 



John L. Hervey 



inheritance of fluctuating variations 



To THE Editor op Science : Referring to Dr. 



Ortmann's interesting article in Science of 



November 29, I should like to ask him how he 



accounts for the well-known phenomenon of 



<^ 



