Chap. XII. INHERITANCE. 11 



is in regard to cattle, with consumption, good and bad teeth, 

 fine skin, &c, &c. But enough, and more than enough, has 

 been said on disease. Andrew Knight, from his own experience, 

 asserts that disease is hereditary with plants ; and this assertion 

 is endorsed by Lindley. 21 



Seeing how hereditary evil qualities are, it is fortunate that 

 good health, vigour, and longevity are equally inherited. It 

 was formerly a well-known practice, when annuities were pur- 

 chased to be received during the lifetime of a nominee, to 

 search out a person belonging to a family of which many 

 members had lived to extreme old age. As to the inheritance 

 of vigour and endurance, the English race-horse offers an 

 excellent instance. Eclipse begot 334, and King Herod 497 

 winners. A " cock-tail " is a horse not purely bred, but with 

 only one-eighth or one-sixteenth impure blood in his veins, yet 

 very few instances have ever occurred of such horses having won 

 a great race. They are sometimes as fleet for short distances as 

 thoroughbreds, but as Mr. Kobson, the great trainer, asserts, 

 they are deficient in wind, and cannot keep up the pace. Mr. 

 Lawrence also remarks, " perhaps no instance has ever occurred 

 of a three-part-bred horse saving his ' distance ' in running two 

 miles with thoroughbred racers." It has been stated by Cecil, 

 that when unknown horses, whose parents were not celebrated, 

 have unexpectedly won great races, as in the case of Priam, 

 they can always be proved to be descended on both sides, through 

 many generations, from first-rate ancestors. On the Continent, 

 Baron Cameronn challenges, in a German veterinary periodical, 

 the opponents of the English race-horse, to name one good 

 horse on the Continent which has not some English race-blood 

 in his veins. 22 



With respect to the transmission of the many slight, but in- 



p. 47. With respect to blindness in 22 These statements are taken from 



horses, see also a whole row of authori- the following works in order : — Youatt 



ties in Dr. P. Lucas's great work, torn. on • The Horse,' p. 48 ; Mr. Darvill, in 



i. p. 399. Mr. Baker, in ' The Veteri- ' The Veterinary,' vol. viii. p. 50. With 



nary,' vol. xiii. p. 721, gives a strong respect to Eobson, see ' The Veterinary,' 



case of hereditary imperfect vision and vol. iii. p. 580 ; Mr. Lawrence on ' The 



of jibbing. Horse,' 1829, p. 9; ' The Stud Farm,' 



21 Knight on ' The Culture of the by Cecil, 1851 ; Baron Cameronn, 



Apple and Pear,' p. 34. Lindley's quoted in ' The Veterinary,' vol. x. p. 



'Horticulture,' p. 180. 500. 



