100 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



each other we, for convenience, apply the 

 term species. 



A survey of facts conclusively demon- 

 strates that the individual and the peculi- 

 arities of the individual, and not those of 

 an abstract type, are transmitted. This 

 has been observed in the human race ; and 

 every breeder has seen repeated instances 

 of the fact among the lower animals. Ev- 

 ery breeder knows that the colors of pa- 

 rents are inherited — that their spots are 

 repeated. Chambon lays it down as a 

 principle, derived from experience, that 

 by choosing parents you can produce any 

 spots you please. 



But another and an important bearing of 

 this subject is found in the fact that, at 

 times, accidents also become hereditary. 

 A superb stallion, son of Le Glorieux, who 

 came from the Pompadour stables, became 

 blind from disease. All of his children 

 became blind before they were three years 

 old. Horses marked, during successive 

 generations, with a hot iron in the same 

 place, have transmitted the visible traces 

 of such marks to their colts. Instances 

 may be multiplied to show conclusively 

 that accidental defects may be transmitted. 

 The general law, however, is that they are j 

 not so transmitted. 



Longevity is an individual peculiarity 

 and as such may be inherited. So it is 

 seen that longliving runs in families. This 

 point is illustrated, in the <Review, by nu- 

 merous instances quoted from M. Charles 

 Lejoncourt's Galerie des Centenaires, 

 published in 1842. 



Mental or moral peculiarities, and ac- 

 quired habits are in like manner inheri- 

 ted. Gmou relates the case of a sporting 

 dog, taken young from its father and 

 mother, who was singularly obstinate and 

 exhibited the greatest terror at ever}* ex- 

 plosion of the gun, which always excites 

 the ardor of its species. It was ascer- 

 tained that the father of this pup had ex- 

 hibited the same trait. It is well known 

 that the vicious disposition of horses, dogs, 

 &c, is often transmitted. 



The inevitable conclusion, says the Re- 

 viewer, is that parents transmit their indi- 

 vidual peculiarities of form, color, longev- 

 ity, idiosyncrasy, &c, to their offspring ; 

 and that they do this not as reproducing 

 the species, but as reproducing their own 

 individual organization 



parents, a male and a female, reproduce 

 themselves in their offspring. The ques- 

 tion then arises, What is the influence of 

 each upon such ^ offspring. Each sex has, 

 by different writers been considered most 

 influential. Again — it has been stated 

 that certain portions of the young have 

 been supposed to arise from each parent. 



Upon the first point Gen. Daumas has 

 recently published the result of his long 

 experience with Arab horses, arguing that, 

 according to the testimony of the Arabs, 

 the stallion was the most valuable for 

 breeding purposes. In reply, the Inspec- 

 teur des Haras* who had traversed Asia for 

 the express purpose of Collecting evidence 

 on the subject, published his diametrically 

 opposite conclusion — that it was^the mare 

 whose influence predominated in the foal. 

 Gen. Daumas replied, and cited a letter 

 addressed to him by Abdel Kader, in 

 which it is said — "the experience of cen- 

 turies has established that the essential 

 parts of the organization, such as the 

 bones, the tendons, the nerves, and the 

 veins, are always from the stallion ;•' and 

 again, "the principal qualities are from 

 the stallion." 



Vicq-d-Azir, speaking of the mule, 

 says : — " It seems as if the exterior and 

 the extremities were modified by the fath- 

 er, and that the viscera emanate from the 

 mother." Mr. Orton, in his lectures, 

 "On the Phisiology of Breeding " says 

 "the male gives the external configura- 

 tion, in other words the locomotive organs, 

 while the female gives the internal, that is 

 the vital organs.' 7 This may be scientifi- 

 cally stated — "the male gives the animal 

 system, the female the organic or vegeta- 

 tive." As proof of this theory, Mr. Or- 

 ton cites the well known instance of the 

 mule — "a modified ass — ears, mane, tail, 

 skin, color, legs and hoofs like the ass ; 

 the body or barrel round and full resem- 

 bling the mare." Whereas the product 

 of the stallion with the female ass is in 

 the same particulars a modified horse, 

 "The mule," says Mr. Orton, y brays 

 the hinny neighs." 



But these results may be accounted for 

 on another principle, that of " potency of 

 race." Both are modified forms of the 

 ass, in each of which the structure and 



In all the higher classes of animals two] horses 



I * Inspector or Superintendent of a Stud of 



