THE CROSSING, &C, Or CATTLE, ET AL. 303 



it has no concern to be mixed up in scientific contro- 

 versies. 



Darwin's beautiful tribute to the efficacy of Divine 

 Government, will avail him, or his theory, not a jot, 

 in the presence of the facts. It is to be lamented, that, 

 when Darwin does essay a little orthodoxy, it should 

 be so palpably misdirected. The simple solution, of 

 the phenomenon to which he refers, is, that, for what- 

 ever disproportion resides in any individual, that 

 individual must pay the penalty, in the evils, usually 

 incident to close-interbreeding: But, as with Cattle, 

 the violation of structural symmetry, has been little, 

 the physiological penalty is correspondingly small. 

 Could an explanation be more satisfying? or, could 

 any assigned cause be more readily and easily adjust- 

 able to actual and possible variations in the quantity of 

 the effects? 



Continuing, Darwin says: 



"The case of Bakewell's Longhorns, which were 

 closely interbred for a long period, has often been 

 quoted; yet, Youatt says, the 'breed had acquired a 

 delicacy of constitution, inconsistent with common 

 management,' and 'the propagation of the species 

 was not always certain.' But, the Shorthorns offer 

 the most striking case of close-interbreeding : for in- 

 stance, the famous bull, Favorite (who was himself, 

 the offspring of a half-brother and sister from Foljambe), 

 was matched with his own daughter, granddaughter, 

 and great-granddaughter; so that the produce of this 

 last union, or the great-great-granddaughter had fifteen- 

 sixteenths or 93.75 per cent, of the blood of Favorite 

 in her veins. This cow was matched with the bull 

 Wellington, having 62.5 per cent, of Favorite blood 



