896 The American Naturalist. [November, 
The repetition of an acquired habit for several generations, 
under the same conditions, may be required to establish it as 
a dominant character over inherited family traits that have 
been fixed by transmission through a long line of ancestors, 
but the final result would show that it had been uniformly 
transmitted, although it had been for a time obscured by other 
prevailing hereditary tendencies of the organism. 
In discussing the evidence relating to the inheritance of 
acquired characters, or the effects of use and disuse, these 
antagonisms in hereditary tendencies should not be lost sight 
of, as the immediate results looked for may be obscured for a 
time by other predominant influences. 
The development of the improved breeds of live stock fur- 
nish abundant evidence of the inheritance of acquired char- 
acters, but the limits of this paper will only permit a passing 
notice of its significance. The most successful breeders of 
domestic animals have acted on the principle that habits of 
the organs of nutrition which determine the expenditure of 
the available energy of foods in a special direction, may be 
cultivated and intensified by persistent exercise for a number 
of generations, and it is difficult to explain how the gradual 
improvement of the desired qualities are obtained without the 
transmission of the modified habit. 
The capacity to fatten at an early age, or, for abundant milk 
production is promoted by liberal feeding in connection with 
a judicious exercise of the desired habit of the system, and the 
highest excellence is obtained when the system of manage- 
ment in each generation is especially directed to the cultiva- 
tion of the habit in its integrity. This is particularly noticea- 
ble in the habit of milk production for a more or less extended - 
period in the course of the year. The fashion of raising lambs 
by nurses of other breeds, and drying up the dam at once to 
keep her in show condition, resulted in seriously diminishing 
the inherited capacity for milk production in the females of 
the family so treated. It is well known to farmers that cows 
on short pastures and under careless management will form the 
habit of “going’dry” early in the season, and that this habit of 
giving milk fora short period is not only transmitted but 
