registered Speeds of American Trotting Horses. 315 



I now come to the fundamental purpose of this memoir, which is 

 to point out the existence in the registers of the American Trotting 

 Association, of a store of material most valuable to inquirers into 

 the laws of heredity, which accumulates and increases in value 

 year by year. Unfortunately it lies buried to a hopeless depth, 

 partly because the published part of the registers refers only to 

 standard trotters. It appears to be buried simply through the omis- 

 sion of having its importance insisted on. The published volumes 

 of the 'Trotting Register' contain numerous elaborate tables, but 

 lacks one that should include the names and pedigrees of those 

 horses concerning whose antecedents enough is known to make their 

 pedigrees serviceable to investigators. 



It is hardly worth while to discuss hereditary influence on speed, 

 in the case of any horses, unless the records of at least their sires and 

 of their dams, and those of each of their four grandparents, as well as 

 their own record, are all known. Even in this case (according, at 

 least, to my own theory) one quarter of the hereditary influences are 

 unknown and have to be inferred. It is practically impossible to 

 make an adequate collection of the names of horses who fulfil the above 

 conditions out of 'the entries in the ' Trotting Register,' each search 

 requiring many cross references and occupying a long time, while 

 the number of futile searches before attaining a success is great. On 

 the other hand, the breeders and possessors of these notably bred 

 horses must be familiar with the required facts, and would assuredly 

 be delighted to have them known. There need, therefore, be little 

 difficulty in obtaining materials for the much desired table. In the 

 meantime I am sending circulars to the chief breeders in America 

 in hopes of making a start. 



The great need for genealogical data of an exact numerical kind, 

 by those who prosecute inquiries into the laws of heredity, is the 

 justification that I offer for submitting these remarks to the Royal 

 Society. 



