THE ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE OX. 
75 
produce that delicacy of structure and early maturity which cha- 
racterize high-bred animals. 
The tokens or signs by which breeders and graziers recognize 
early maturity, are smallness of bone, an expanded trunk, and 
a soft expansive integument, which extends to all high-bred 
animals that are used as food, whether in the ox, the sheep, the 
pig, the goat, or the rabbit, nay, even to the human species. 
Professor Playfair, in his admirable lectures on the application of 
physiology to the rearing and feeding of cattle before the members 
of the Royal Agricultural Society, &c., delivered in December 
1842, shewed that it was not necessary that because an animal 
fattened quickly and had an expanded chest he should also have 
a large lung : on the contrary, he plainly proved that animals 
that have large chests, such as the new Leicester sheep, have 
smaller lungs than the South Down sheep, that have narrow 
chests; and accordingly it is found that the Leicesters fatten 
quicker than the other breed. 
I took some pains to ascertain the truth of the statement, since 
it was opposed to the generally received views, “ that animals with 
large chests fattened best, because they had the largest lungs.” 
In the course of this inquiry, I discovered a remarkable circum- 
stance, which had not been stated before by any writer, that not 
only had animals possessing a great tendency to fatten smaller 
lungs than those not having this peculiarity, but that, in propor- 
tion as an animal became fat, the organs of nutrition, such as the 
lungs, liver, spleen, stomach, and intestines, &c., in fact, the offal 
of every description, became reduced in size. 
I am exceedingly glad to find, from some remarks of Mr. Read, 
of Crediton, that he also became acquainted with the same circum- 
stance, although he differs from Professor Playfair in the opinion 
that small lungs and livers are the best organs for the assimilation of 
fat. I am able, however, to prove, from repeated observations made 
on a great many cattle, chiefly of the Devon breed, and from some 
of the coarsest description to those of the far-famed quarterly stock, 
that those which exhibited the points that are recognized as tokens 
of a disposition to acquire early maturity, have the smallest offal 
of every description. 
These points being allowed, the reader will immediately see the 
effect which is likely to be produced by breeding from fatted 
animals, since the diminutive structures are likely to be produced 
in the course of time in the race. Function in every case reacts 
on organization, and thus it is that those characters become fixed, 
particularly if the system of breeding from the nearest affinities 
is practised at the same time. 
