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Show 10 INllERITANCE. CnAP. XII. authority of Dr. Osborne/9 the following cmious im;tanco of strong inheritance: a family of sixteen sons and five daughters all had eyes "resemblin()' in miniatmo the markings on tho back of a tortoiseshell cat." The mothero of this largo family had throe sisters and a brother all similarly marked, and they derived this peculiarity from their mother, who belonged to a family notorious for transmitting it to thdr posterity. Finally, Dr. Lucas emphatically remarks that thoro is not one single faculty of the eye which is not subject to anomalies ; and not one which is not subjected to tho principle of inheritance. Mr. Bowman agrees with the general truth of this proposition; which of course docs not imply that all malformations are necessarily inheTitcd ; this would not oven follow if both parents were affected by an anomaly which in most cases was transmissible. Even if no single fact had been lrnown with respect to the inheritance of disease and malformations by man, the evidence ·would have been ample in the case of the horse. And this might have been expected, as horses breed much quicker than man, are matched with care, and are highly valued. I have consulted many works, and the unanimity of the belief by veterinaries of all nations in the transmission of various morbid tendencies is surprising. Authors, \Tho have had 'yide expm·ience, give in detail many singular cases, and assert that contracteJ. feet, with the numerous contingent evils, of ring-bones, curbs, splints, spavin, founder and weakness of the front legs, roaring or broken and thick wind, melanosis, specific ophthalmia, and Llindness (the great F1·ench veterinary Huzard going so far as to say that a blind race could soon Le formed), crib-biting, jiLbing, and ill-temper, are all plainly hereditary. Youatt sums up by saying "there is scarcely a malady to which the horse is subject which is not hereditary ;" and M. Bernard adds that the doctrine "that there is scarcely a disease whieh does not run in the stock, is gaining new advocates every day." 20 So it 19 Dr. Osborne, Pres. of Royal College of Phys. in Ireland, published this case in the 'Dublin Medical Journal' for 1835. 2o These various sta-tements arc taken from the following works and paper :Youatt on 'The Horse,' pp. 35, 220. Lawrence,' The Horse,' p. 30. Karkcek, in an excellent pap0r in 'Gard. Chrollidc,' 1853, p. 92. Mr. Burke, in 'Journal of H. Agricul. Soc. of :Eug-land,' vol. v. p. 511. 'Encyclop. of Rural Sports,' p. 279. Girou do Hnzareignues, 'l'hilosoph. Phys.,' p. 215. See following papers in 'The Veterinary :' Roberts, in vol. ii. p. 144; l\1. l\1animpoey, vol. ii. p. 387; l\1r. Karkcck, vol. i v. p. 5; Y ouatt on Goitre in Dogs, vol. v. p. 483; Youatt, in vol. vi. pp. G0, 348, 412; l\1. Bern;Lrd, vol. xi. p. 53!); Dr. SamesreutlJcr, on Cattle, in vul. xii. p. 181; l'erciV:.dl, in vol. xiii. CnAP. XII. INllERITANCE. 11 is in regard to cattle, with consumption, good and bad teeth, fine skin, &c. &c. But enough, and more than enough, has beGn said on disease. Andrew Knight, from his own experience, asserts that disease is hereditary with plants; and this assertion is endorsed by Lindley.21 Seeing how hereditary evil qualities are, it is fortunate that good health, vigour, and longevity are equally inherited. It was formerly a well-known practice, when annuities were purchased to be received during the lifetime of a nominee, to search out a person belonging to a family of which many members had lived to extreme old age. As to the inheritance of vigour and endurance, the English race-horse offers an o~cellent instance. Eclipse begot 334, and King Herod 497 wmners. A "cock-tail" is a horse not purely bred, but with only one-eighth or one-sixteenth impure blood in his veins, yet very few instances have ever occurred of such horses h~ving won a great race. 'fhey are sometimes as fleet for short distances as thoroughbreds, but as 1\fr. Robson, the great trainer, asserts, they are deficient in wind, and cannot keep up the pace. Mr. Lawrence also remarks, "perhaps no instance has ever occurred of. a th~·ee-part-bre d horse saving l:iis 'distance' in running two miles w1th thoroughbred racers." It has been stated by Cecil, that when unknown horses, whose parents were not celebrated, have unexpectedly won great races, as in the case of Priam, they can always be proved to be descended on both sides, throu()'h many generations, from first-rate ancestors. On the Oontine~t JJaron Cameroun challenges, in a German veterinary periodical: the opponents of the English race-horse, to name one good horse on the Continent which has not some English race-blood in his veins. 22 With respect to the transmission of the many slight, but in-p. 47. With respect to blindness in h or:ses, see also a whole row of authorities in Dr. P. Lucas's great work, tom. i. p. 399. Mr. Baker, in 'The Veterinary,' vol. xiii. p. 721, gives a strong case of h ereditary imperfect vi;;ion and of jibLing. 21 Knight on 'The Culture of the Apple and Pear,' p. 31. Liudley'il 'Hvrticulture,' p. 180. 22 These statements are taken from the following works in order :-Youtltt on ' The Horse,' p. 48; l\Ir. Darvill, in 'The Veterinary,' vol. viii. p. 50. With respect to Robson, see ''l'he Veterinary,' vol. iii. p. 580; l\lr. L;nnenee on ' Tho Ilur::;c,' 1829, p. 9; ''file Stud Farm,' Ly Cecil, 1851 ; Baron Cameroun quotell in ''fhe Vet ·ri11ary' vul x. 1): 500. ' |