May, 1891. 
ANIMAL PEDIGREES. 
97 
ANIMAL PEDIGREES.* 
BY A. MILNES IIARSHALL, M.A., M.D., D.SC., F.R.S., 
BEYER PROFESSOR OF ZOOLOGY IN OWENS COLLEGE, MANCHESTER. 
There are few things in which men take greater pride, or 
from which they derive more solid enjoyment, than in tracing 
out and publishing to the world their pedigrees ; and we must 
acknowledge that the proceeding itself, and the satisfaction 
obtained from it, are ..entirely legitimate. For we all have 
pedigrees ; for two or three generations each one of us could 
give his descent, trace his pedigree, off hand ; and if we fail 
in attempting to go further back we know that this is from 
lack of knowledge, not of facts. 
Would we learn these facts, we know that there are those 
whose profession it is to supplement our deficiencies of 
memory or of information on these points, and who are pre¬ 
pared, for a sum of half-a-crown, to provide the enquirer with 
a duly attested pedigree dating from the time of the Conquest. 
For a guinea a Roman emperor can be obtained ; while the 
avaricious in such matters, who are prepared to spend a five 
pound note, may satisfy themselves, and for all we know 
truthfully, of their descent from a Pharaoh of the 19th 
dynasty. 
The mode of constructon of such pedigrees, or genealogical 
trees, is familiar to us all from our school days. We begin 
by ruling a series of horizontal lines, which we agree shall 
represent successive generations. Then, assuming that we 
are of those whose aspirations are satisfied by a two-and- 
sixpenny ancestry, we commence with the dawn of respecta¬ 
bility in the year 1066, and gradually trace upwards from this 
date the line representing our descent from the selected 
progenitor. 
We indicate in capitals, or in italics, any kings, or 
statesmen, or poets, or other eminent people whose memories 
we like to think derive renewed lustre from association with 
ourselves ; and to include a sufficient number of these we 
trace the side branches of our tree for some distance ; finally, 
on the topmost twig, and in largest letters, we write—John 
Smith. 
* An address delivered before the Birmingham Natural History 
and Microscopical Society, October 14th, 1890 ; and based upon the 
Presidential Address to the Biological Section, at the meeting of the 
British Association for the Advancement of Science, at Leeds, in 
September, 1890. 
