SUMMARY OF THE CASE. 217 



friend, Mr. Carr, allowed me to put forward in his valu- 

 able work on the " Booth Herds:" namely, that " the via 

 media, and therefore the via salutis, would seem to lie in 

 the adoption of two apparently opposite principles — in- 

 and-in breeding and fresh blood" Nor do I think that 

 there is anything in the history of these cattle, properly 

 read, to invalidate the conclusion to which Mr. Darwin 

 comes, even after having read their history as so un- 

 fairly stated by Culley, that — " The existence of a great 

 law of nature is, if not proved, at least rendered in the 

 highest degree probable : namely, that the crossing of 

 animals and plants which are not closely related to each 

 other is highly beneficial or even necessary, and that 

 inter-breeding prolonged during many generations is 

 highly injurious." * 



* Since the foregoing account was written two pure-bred white Short-horn 

 heifers have been mated with one of the Chillingham "Wild Bulls. Both 

 were very highly-bred animals, with recorded pedigrees on each side for 

 upwards of a century. In June, 1877, they each produced white calves, 

 one a bull-calf and the other a cow-calf. At six months old these calves 

 inherited the conformation and colour of the wild animal — the bull in 

 almost every degree ; the ears were red-tipped, but the eyelids were black, 

 and the nose not entirely black, but mottled. There was much loose-hanging 

 skin from the throat to the dew-lap, and he appeared to be not quite so good 

 behind the shoulders as the wild cattle. On entering the box the calf ran 

 up and down, as if to escape, and finding that impossible, he gradually set 

 himself in the corner, as if ready to charge on too close an approach. The 

 cow-calf partook more of the Short-horn character, and was a shapely, 

 good calf, fuller of flesh than the bull ; and although it set itself in 

 somewhat the same manner as the bull calf , yet it was certainly not nearly 

 so wild. Its ears were tipped with red, and the lower eyelid was black, 

 the upper one being white. It differed also in having a clear nose, like 

 the Short-horn. — Ed. 



