146 
GOOD AND BAD EFFECTS OF SALT ON ANIMALS. 
Court, several mares had bred from the horse 
Colonel, and the next year, although the foals 
had been got by the horse Actseon, in sev¬ 
eral of them there was observed unequivocal 
marks of the horse Colonel, which had been 
with the mares the previous year. 
The Earl of Suffield had a colt got by the 
horse Laurel, that so closely resembled anoth¬ 
er horse Camel, that among the dealers it 
was boldly asserted that the colt must have 
been obtained from Camel until it was ascer¬ 
tained that the dam of the colt had previously 
borne a colt from Camel. 
Singular facts are frequently observed among 
breeders of cattle; so many that Mr. Me Gilli- 
vray, after narrating many says: “ Among cat¬ 
tle and horses, they are of every-day occurrence.’? 1 
The Rev. Charles M’Combie, of Aberdeen¬ 
shire, tells of a neighbor of his who had been 
twice married, and had issue by both husbands, 
five by the first and three by the second. Of 
the last three, one, a girl, bears great resem¬ 
blance to the first husband, who differed very 
much in features, complexion, and general ap¬ 
pearance from the second. Professor Simpson, 
of Edinburg, tells of a Scottish woman who had 
borne a mulatto child from a negro man, and 
afterward a girl, whose father was white, had 
many of the characteristics of the negro race. 
Physiologists, while they have admitted the 
phenomena, have been divided in their modes 
of explaining the laws that govern them, some 
supposing that an impression was m^de upon 
the imagination of the mother, producing a per¬ 
manent result, while others deny the possibility 
of such a cause. The more probable reason to 
me is this: The offspring and the mother are 
so intimately connected by the funis, (navel 
string,) that the same blood circulates through 
the veins of each, and thus the progeny of the 
first impregnations produces a .change in the 
whole organism of the mother, assimilating it 
in a degree to the male parent. If this be the 
true explanation, thus do husband and wife be¬ 
come, literally, “ bone of one bone and flesh of 
one flesh,” and in this manner, we can account 
for the failure of many persons in their endeav¬ 
or to obtain animals of a perfectly pure breed. 
Let them look to it, that the female has not had 
her blood tainted by breeding with animals of 
a different class, previous to her being coupled 
with those whose peculiar characteristics they 
wish to perpetuate. C. H. Cleayeland. 
Waterhury , Vt, March 12th, 1853. 
For more extended and curious information 
on the subject of cross breeding, we would re¬ 
fer such of our readers as desire it, -to a work 
recently written by Dr. Alexander Harvey, of 
the Aberdeen University, published by W. 
Blackwood & Sons, of Edinburg. 
GOOD AND BAD EFFECTS OF SALT ON ANIMALS 
In several communications in the Agricultu¬ 
rist within the last few months, I observe there 
is a disposition to renounce the use of common 
salt as a condiment in the food or medicine of 
man and animals, and that it is no more neces¬ 
sary for cattle and sheep than it is for buffaloes, 
wild deer, and goats—an opinion at variance 
with numerous medical facts, and the experi¬ 
ence of the whole civilised world from the earli¬ 
est times. It is true, a few instances are cited in 
support of such a theory, as the semi-barbarous 
Aztecs of Mexico, the hunters of the Rocky 
Mountains, the wandering cattle of the prairies, 
and the wild beasts of the forest and of the 
plain. But when it is considered that these 
men and animals are inured to hardihood by 
fatigue or long exposure to the open air, con¬ 
fined to simple food, and possibly with means 
at hand to substitute something in the place of 
salt, such arguments appear to be futile, and 
would seem to be calculated to do more harm 
than good. On the contrary, when we contrast 
the lives and habits of civilised man, and of our 
domestic animals, confined as they are, a large 
portion of the year, in hot rooms or close sta¬ 
bles, subsisting on a great variety of artificial 
food, which give rise to a corresponding de¬ 
rangement of their systems as well as to numer¬ 
ous diseases, medical and every-day experience 
show that salt is useful and even necessary to 
counteract the evils domestic or artificial life 
has brought upon them. Chemistry reveals to 
us the fact that small portions of common salt, 
applied to all kinds of animal or vegetable mat¬ 
ter, hastens their decomposition, and hence, the 
utility of using this condiment in decomposing 
or digesting our food. 
Salt, however, may be injudiciously admin¬ 
istered in many cases, as will appear from the 
following remarks by Professor Robinson, in 
the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society 
of England, vol. vii., part I., p. IfiO:—“ I have for 
many years been perfectly convinced that salt 
allowed in quantity is highly prejudicial to all 
breeding animals, as it has a direct influence 
in greatly diminishing the necessary supply of 
milk for the immediate sustenance of the young 
animal; hence, salt is the best medicine to ‘dry* 
a cow of her milk, and ewes would also be ben- 
