Thirty-fourth Annual Convention. 



63 



Nature Adapts Form to Purpose. 



Now then, I have given you considerable general thought 

 concerning the development of dairy cattle and for a little while 

 I am going to make plain how it is that this body changes in 

 response to the law of environment. Nature has a law like this, 

 she always adapts a form to a purpose. It is remarkable. Why 

 this world is full of illustrations. Take a hen's foot; she does 

 not swim, does she? She is in an awful pickle when you throw 

 her into the water. A duck's foot is different, is it not? Take 

 the giraffe with his long neck, he lives on trees and the little fel- 

 lows could not get anything in times of famine and died, so 

 the long necks survived and the long neck is the characteristic 

 of the giraffe. And so it goes all the way through. Nature is 

 continually responding to the law of environment. 



Now I will tell you one thing that was brought out by 

 Professor Nachtrieb of the University of Minnesota, that illu- 

 strates very strongly this law of change as shown in the bony 

 system of the well bred dairy animal. I happen to have a good 

 picture of a good Jersey cow here and I am going to put my 

 hand on the picture as I would on the animal herself. Here I 

 will find the floating rib and in every case, regardless of breed 

 and everything else, if the animal is strongly dairy bred I am 

 going to find a wide space between this hook point and the 

 floating rib. I observed that for a number of years and finally 

 I went to Professor Nachtrieb, who stands among the best as 

 an instructor in biology, and I said, "Professor, what does that 

 mean?" Ihad also a number of other questions. He said, "Oh, 

 Mr. Gregg, I do not know anything about cows." "But," I 

 said, "you are a biologist and you can probably tell me why this 

 wide space exists," and he replied, "In the early stages ribs were 

 made to protect the vital organs, the heart and lungs, but as the 

 years have passed by the ribs have assumed another function. 

 They are used to help in breathing. We inhale the air, then 

 expel it and it is expelled in the part by the collapsing of the ribs." 



While he was talking I was thinking about my cows and 

 pretty soon I said, "Professor, I have it. This cow of mine has 

 tO' eat a whole lot of food in order to keep up the blood supply 

 and the consequent milk supply. That is plain. And as a con- 

 sequence she has to have a big paunch or first stomach and these 

 ribs can no longer act the part of bellows, and what does Nature 



