Mr. McGillivray says: "A knowledge of the fact must be of the greatest benefit to the breeder in two ways, positively and negatively. I have known very great disappointment and loss result from allowing an inferior male to serve a first rate female—the usefulness of such female being thereby forever destroyed. As for the positive benefits arising from the inoculation—they are obvious to any unbiased mind. The black polled and Aberdeenshire cattle common to this country (Scotland) may be, and often are, improved by the following plan: Select a good, well formed, and healthy heifer—put her, in proper season, to a pure Short-horn bull; after the calf to this Durham bull, breed from the cow with bulls of her own breed; occasionally, and most likely the first time, a red calf ultimately having horns will appear even from the polled bull and cow; but in general the calves will be of the same type with the polled parents but with many points improved, and an aptitude to fatten, to come earlier to maturity, &c., such as no one of the pure polled or Aberdeenshire breed ever exhibited in this country, or any other country, however well kept, previous to the introduction of the Short-horn breed. The offspring of these breeds thus improved, when bred from again, will exhibit many points and qualities of excellence similar to the best crosses but retaining much of the hardiness of the original stock, no mean consideration for this changeable and often severe climate. And, moreover, such crosses,—for they are crosses—will command high prices as improved polled or Aberdeenshire cattle. I happen to know of a case where a farmer, from a distance purchased a two year old heifer of the stamp referred to, for the purpose of improving his polled cattle, and for this heifer he paid fifty guineas."
The knowledge of this law[13] gives us a clue to the cause of many of the disappointments of which practical breeders often complain and to the cause of many variations otherwise unaccountable, and it suggests particular caution as to the first male employed in the coupling of animals, a matter which has often been deemed of little consequence in regard to cattle, inasmuch as fewer heifers' first calves are reared, than of such as are borne subsequently.
Another faint ray of light touching the causes of variation is afforded us by the fact that the qualities of offspring are not only dependent on the habitual conditions of the parents, but also upon any peculiar condition existing at the time of sexual congress. For instance, the offspring of parents ordinarily healthy and temperate, but begotten in a fit of intoxication, would be likely to suffer permanently, both physically and mentally, from the condition which the parents had temporarily brought upon themselves. On the other hand, offspring begotten of parents in an unusually healthy and active condition of body and mind, would likely be unusually endowed both mentally and physically. The Arabs in breeding horses take advantage of this fact, for before intercourse, both sire and dam are actively exercised, not to weariness, but sufficiently to induce the most vigorous condition possible. Of this, too, we have proof in the phenomenon sometimes observed by breeders, that a strong mental impression made upon the female by a particular male, will give the offspring a resemblance to him, even though she have no sexual intercourse with him. Of this, Mr. Boswell in his prize essay published in 1828, gives a remarkable instance. He says that Mr. Mustard of Angus, one of the most intelligent breeders he had ever met with, told him that one of his cows chanced to come into season while pasturing on a field bounded by that of one of his neighbors, out of which field an ox jumped and went with the cow until she was brought home to the bull. The ox was white, with black spots, and horned. Mr. Mustard had not a horned beast in his possession, nor one with any white on it. Nevertheless, the produce of the following spring was a black and white calf with horns.
The case of Jacob is often quoted in support of this view, and although many believe some miraculous agency to have been exerted in his case, and though he could say with truth, "God hath taken away the cattle of your father and given them to me," it seems, on the whole, more probable, inasmuch as supernatural agency may never be presumed, except where we know, or have good reason to believe, that natural causes are insufficient, that God "gave" them, as he now gives to some, riches or honors; that is to say, by virtue of the operation of natural laws. If all who keep cattle would exercise a tithe of the patriarch's shrewdness and sagacity in improving their stock, we should see fewer ill-favored kine than at present.
The possibility of some effect being produced by a strong impression at the time of conception, is not to be confounded with the popular error that "marks" upon an infant[14] are due to a transient, although strong impression upon the imagination of the mother at any period of gestation, which is unsupported by facts and absurd; but there are facts sufficient upon record to prove that habitual mental condition, and especially at an early stage of pregnancy, may have the effect to produce some bodily deformity, and should induce great caution.
FOOTNOTES:
[3] See Rowley's Prize Report on Farming in Derbyshire, in Journal of Royal Agricultural Society, Vol. 14.
[4] A working bull, though perhaps not so pleasing to the eye as a fat one, (for fat sometimes covers a multitude of defects,) is a surer stock-getter; and his progeny is more likely to inherit full health and vigor.
[5] In his Origin of Species.