258 
An Essay on Fat and Muscle. 
function, and the disposition to accumulate fat is thereby pro- 
duced — the diminished structure is very likely to be reproduced 
in the progeny of an animal so affected : hence the reaction ; and 
if the same system be pursued, particularly in breeding from the 
nearest affinities, this effect will be more speedily produced. It 
is in this manner that the greatest improvements have been made 
in our native breeds from time to time — in the short-horns and 
improved long-horns — in the improved Herefords and Devons. 
The history of those different breeds sufficiently proves this. The 
dam of Hubback, the sire of the short-horned race, became so 
fat that she soon ceased to breed ; and her son, having the same 
tendency, was useful as a bull but for a very short period. This 
was also the case with Bolingbroke, and several of ]Mr. CoUing's 
best bulls. The two cows of Mr. Tomkins, Mottle and Pigeon, 
the originators of the improved Herefords, were selected in con- 
sequence of their extraordinary tendency to become fat ; and the 
whole secret of Bakewell, as to the method which he pursued 
to establish the long-horned cattle and the new Leicester sheep, 
lay here. 
18. There is a delicacy of form and a refinement of tone which 
characterize animals bred in this manner, and they acquire early 
maturity ; their bone and muscle are more quickly developed, and 
are soon ripe, because they sooner become old. In a wild state, 
and without reference to the wants of man, we should consider 
these qualities as a progress towards deterioration ; and so they 
are, since the animals sufi^er by the exchange — but man gains an 
improvement. It will be shown, however, before we conclude, 
that by carrying this system of breeding too far, in many in- 
stances man also has become a very considerable loser (21, 22). 
The very opposite system to this has been established in the 
breeding of the racehorse ; and, accordingly, there have been pro- 
duced opposite results. The object being here to develop a 
structure capable of great speed with the powers of endurance: 
to attain these qualities, animals were selected with large lungs; 
and the system pursued in training them has tended to develop 
a still more powerful structure of those organs. The object 
in training the racehorse is to increase what is commonly 
called the icind ; and the regular gallops, which are given for this 
purpose, increase the power of the lungs; and the breathing 
becomes accordingly freer and deeper, and the capability of ex- 
ertion is increased. We have an example here also of the effect 
of function reacting on organisation — for the constant breeding 
of animals in this manner (other objects of course being at- 
tended to) would to a certainty develop those desirable qualities 
in a greater degree than was ])ossessed by the founders of the 
race. It is no argument to the contrary that the present race of 
