804 DADD’S VETERJNARY MEDICINE AND SURGERY. 
weak foal should run with its mother for a longer period thas 
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 tne effects of parturi’ior. 
THE PRisCIPLES OF BREEDING. 
It is a law of Nature that peculiarities of form, size, color, etc., 
shal] 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 tlie 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 uew creature, improved or not, as the case 
may be, under the direction of his lord and master; so that the 
inferior orders cf 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 te 
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 o1 narrow chest, which peculiarity is indicative of predinpo- 
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 m>re 
