1 Jury, 1899.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 25 
of the sire in form and general proportions. ‘The males of the dairy breeds 
generally are prepotent in the transmission of the characteristics of the females 
of their race. 
I shall now quote from the same source a few instances which prove that 
qualities acquired by habit, practice, or training are also inheritant. 
A. new instinct has become hereditary in a mongrel race of dogs employed 
by the inhabitants of the banks of the Magdalena almost exclusively in hunting 
the white-lipped peccary. he peculiarity of these dogs consist in their 
restraining their ardour, and attaching themselves to no individual animal in 
particular, but keeping the whole in check. Now, amongst these dogs some 
are found which, the first time they are taken to the woods, are acquainted 
with this mode of attack, whereas a dog of another breed starts forward at 
once, is surrounded by the peccaries, and, whatever may be his strength, is 
destroyed immediately. 
A race of dogs employed for hunting deer in the platform of Santa Fé, in 
Mexico, is distinguished by the peculiar mode in which they attack their game. 
This consists in seizing the animal by the belly, and overturning it by a sudden 
effort, taking advantage of the moment when the body of the deer rests only 
upon his forelegs, the weight of the animal thus thrown being often six times 
that of his antagonist. Now, the dog of pure breed inherits a disposition of 
this kind of chase, and never attacksja deer from before while running; and 
even should the deer, not perceiving him, come directly upon him the dog steps 
aside and then makes his assault upon the flank. On the other hand, European 
dogs, though of superior strength and sagacity, are destitute of this instinct, 
and for want of similar precautions they are often killed by the deer on the 
spot, the cervical vertebre being dislocated by the violence of the shock. 
Herbert Spencer says, in his “Principles of Biology”: “Mr. Lewes had a puppy 
taken from his mother at six weeks old, which, although never taught to beg 
(an accomplishment his mother had been taught), spontaneously took to begging 
for everything he wanted when about seven or eight months old. He would 
beg for food, beg to be let out of the room, and one day was found opposite 
the rabbit-hutch, apparently begging the rabbits to come out and play.” 
Darwin says: “I find in the domestic duck that the bones of the wing 
weigh less and the bones of the leg more in proportion to the whole skeleton 
than do the same bones of the wild duck, and I presume that this change may 
safely be attributed to the domestic duck flying much less and walking much 
more than its wild parent. The great and inheritant development of udders in 
cows and goats in countries where they are habitually milked in comparison 
with the state of these organs in other countries is another instance of the effects 
of use.” So far Darwin. I have mentioned on a former occasion that mental 
peculiarities are as much inheritant as those of the body. Weckherlin says that, 
according to his experience, “ horses whose ancestors were easily trained are 
generally more docile than others.” ‘The horses in Arabia are certainly treated 
in a different manner to our Australian stockhorses. The gentleness and docility 
of the Arab horse are proverbial. Many of the qualities, however, which seem 
to have been artificially inculeated into the parent animals, and have reappeared 
in the offspring, have probably existed in the blood of the ancestors, and were 
merely developed through being cultivated. 
With reference to accidental mutilations being inherited, Darwin mentions 
the remarkable case observed by Brown Sequard of epilepsy produced by injuring 
the spinal cord of guinea pigs being inherited. In his experiments with guinea pigs 
Dr. rown Sequard observed that in those subjected to a particular operation, 
involving a portion of the spinal cord or sciatic nerve, a slight pinching of the skin 
of the face would throw the animals into a kind of epileptic convulsion. When 
these epileptic guinea pigs bred together, their offspring showed the same pre- 
disposition without having been themselves subjected to any lesion whatever ; 
while no such tendency showed itself in any of the large number of young 
which were bred from parents that had not been operated upon. 
