HEREDITY. 



427 



Horses (London, 1796), considered that 'the utmost 

 speed of the English trotter ' (which he believes to ex- 

 cel all others), to be a mile in two minutes and fifty- 

 seven seconds. During the next twenty years there 

 were very many recorded trials of speed, and a few of 

 the best animals, both here and in Europe, trotted a 

 mile in three minutes, but none in less time than that 

 given by Lawrence. 



"Considering the number of animals that were 

 tested, the widespread interest in the matter, and that 

 these records were the best of both Europe and Amer- 

 ica, it is fair to assume that this was the utmost speed 

 actually attained by the best trotting-horses until after 

 1820, although some specific selection in breeding trot- 

 ters had been going on for half a century, and possibly 

 much longer. 



"By 18 10, the taste for trotting as a sport had died 

 out in western Europe, but it increased here, and in 

 1818 it became a recognized sport under specific rules. 

 This is practically the beginning of technical 'trotting 

 records ' as we now know them. It soon became 

 fashionable to drive a single horse for pleasure, a so- 

 cial factor in breeding that was lacking in the Old 

 World. This created a demand for trotters, as well 

 as increased the taste of trotting as a sport. Asso- 

 ciations were chartered for the promoting of trotting, 

 and special tracks built for the exercising and training 

 of trotters. 



"At the end of 1824, six years after the first ac- 

 cepted three-minute record, the record had fallen to 

 2:34, a reduction of twenty-six seconds. This great 

 reduction so rapidly effected was, doubtless, due chiefly 

 to better training, but also in part to special exercise 

 of function, in part to heredity, and in part to the 



