886 



SCIENCE 



[N. 8. Vol. XXXAteII. No. I 



discovered principles of heredity, and an at- 

 tempt to demonstrate their utility in practical 

 Btock-breeding operations, with especial refer- 

 ence to the economic production of milk and 

 butter. In the first chapters Professor Wilson 

 develops, in a manner that should interest both 

 the student of heredity and the practical 

 breeder, the history of the theory of stock- 

 breeding, beginning with the old theories, 

 which he designates : " like begets like," " in- 

 breeding," " pedigree " and " evolution." Con- 

 cerning these theories he says, " They have 

 been tried in Britain for varying periods of 

 time : like begets like for centuries, inbreed- 

 ing for nearly a century and a half, and pedi- 

 gree for nearly a century. Evolution has been 

 in stock-breeders' minds vaguely for nearly a 

 half century." He describes the rise of each of 

 these notions, and tells how each in turn was 

 adopted by the practical breeders and how 

 each in turn was found to possess exceptions 

 and shortcomings which the breeder was 

 bound to recognize. He then points out the 

 manner in which the aggravating exceptions 

 to these accepted principles led to further in- 

 vestigations, and finally to the discovery of 

 other principles at first accepted all too inclu- 

 sively, only to be subjected to the same puri- 

 fying process. 



The history of the making of the breeds of 

 British cattle is always a fascinating story, 

 and Professor Wilson, through his wide ac- 

 quaintance with the history of breeding, de- 

 scribes the inestimable service rendered to live- 

 stock interests through the operations, largely 

 by the process of inbreeding, first of all by 

 Bakewell with many breeds, then by Hugh 

 Watson with Angus cattle, and Cruickshank 

 with Shorthorns, and by Sir George Macpher- 

 son Grant with Aberdeen-Angus cattle. The 

 greatness of the English breeders is demon- 

 strated. by their willingness to try out all theo- 

 ries that promised utility. They threshed out 

 the grain from the chaff; not only did they 

 try out the old theories just mentioned, but 

 they tried out with equal avidity " reversion," 

 " maternal impression," " accident and muti- 

 lation" and "telegony." The fact that these 

 latter theories yielded no " fruit " did not 



daunt the British breeder, and he is now in 

 the midst of trying out Mendelism. If the 

 principles of Mendelism, when applied to 

 practical breeding, can yield half as much as 

 the older inbreeding operations, then Pro- 

 fessor Wilson's appeal and advice will prove to 

 have been wholesome and good. 



There is in this book a vigorous protest 

 against pedigree breeding in the old sense, 

 and a continual appeal for breeding for traits 

 which can be controlled by the applications of 

 Mendelian principles. The author contends 

 that the herd-books and stud-books are the 

 tyrants that keep modern breeds stationary; 

 that fashion, as much as utility, seems to rule 

 the older breeds, the one exception being the 

 thoroughbred horse, which is continually being 

 put to the best of tests, namely, the track, and 

 winners and breeders of winners are in de- 

 mand regardless of family tradition. He 

 prophesies that one of the principal lines of 

 development of stock-breeding in the future 

 will be the transferring of traits of utility 

 from one breed to another, and is optimistic as 

 to the possibilities of such a process. 



The author describes the instances wherein 

 traits of domestic animals appear to behave 

 in Mendelian fashion, and he attempts to give 

 practical advice as to the proper method of 

 breeding for what he is pleased to call the 

 three economic factors, namely, size, yield and 

 quality. 



In reference to the first, size, it appears that 

 the first cross between cattle of a small and a 

 large breed will give, quite uniformly, an in- 

 termediate-sized animal, but it is not clear 

 whether such animals when bred together will 

 throw offspring which segregate back to the 

 two grandparental sizes. He protests against 

 the method of breeding the half-breed off- 

 spring back to one of the pure breeds, claim- 

 ing, quite properly it appears, that the correct 

 way to secure new combinations is to breed 

 the Fj hybrids together. He protests also 

 against too close an adherence to the theory of 

 fancy points, holding that there is not always 

 the high correlation between fashionable points 

 and utility that many breeders seem to feel 

 exists. 



