BREEDING FARM STOCK. 
291 
like other sheep. They are more infirm in their organic 
construction, as well as more awkward in their gait, having 
their fore-legs always crooked, and their feet turned inwards 
when they walk. 
“ When both parents are of the other or ancon breed, 
their descendants inherit their peculiar appearance and pro- 
portions of form, with very rare exceptions. 
“ When an ancon ewe is impregnated by a common ram, 
the increase resembles wholly either the ewe or the ram. 
The increase of a common ewe, impregnated by an ancon 
ram, follows entirely the one or the other, without blending 
any of the distinguishing and essential peculiarities of both. 
“ Frequent instances have happened where common ewes 
have had twins by ancon rams, when one exhibited the com- 
plete marks and features of the ewe, the other of the ram. 
The contrast has been rendered singularly striking when one 
short-legged and one long legged lamb, produced at a birth, 
have been seen sucking the dam at the same time. 
“ The formation of new varieties, by breeding from indivi- 
duals in whom the desired properties exist in the greatest 
degree, is seen much more distinctly in our domestic animals 
than in our own species, since the former are entirely in 
our power. The great object is to preserve the race pure, 
by selecting for propagation the animals most conspicuous 
for the size, colour, form, proportion, or any other property we 
may fix on, and exclude all others. In this way we may 
gain sheep valuable for their fleece, or for their carcass, 
large or small, with thick or thin legs — just such, in short, as 
we choose, within certain limits. 
“The hereditary transmission of physical and moral quali- 
ties, so well understood and familiarly acted on in the 
domestic animals, is equally true of man. A superior breed 
of human beings could only be produced by selections and 
exclusions similar to those so successfully employed in rear- 
ing our more valuable animals. Yet, in the human species, 
where the object is of such consequence, the principle is 
almost entirely overlooked. Hence all the native deformities 
of mind and body which spring up so plentifully in our 
artificial mode of life are handed down to posterity, and tend, 
by their multiplication and extension, to degrade the race. 
Consequently the mass of the population in our large cities 
will not bear a comparison with that of savage nations, in 
which, if imperfect or deformed individuals should survive 
the hardships of their first rearing, they are prevented, by 
the kind of aversion they inspire, from propagating their 
deformities. 
