Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1895-04-19
DOES TRAINING AID PREPO-
TENCY?
JOSEPH BATTELL
Middleburv, VT.

ACQUIRED ChARAC EMS, a QOGo ilON
OF VlTAL IMPORTANCE TO BREEDERS.
An article published in the Kentucky
Stock Farm of March II, on the Pre-
potency of Pacing Blood contains the
following sentences;
The power of development, its force in
not only fixing, but in creating an intel
est, can hardly be overstated. Given a
trotting- bred horse. without a tinge OF
pacing blood let him in any way you
like change or be changed TO the pace /;
develop him and race him at that gait
until it becomes mentally rs well AS
physically his gait, and you have so
changed his inheritance that the pace
becomes a part thereof. and is naturally
transmitted in part, or rather IN some
degree and at some times, in his blood,
of which 1t has become an Inherent
characteristic. Thus may logically be
accounted for the apparently spontan-
eous origin of a pacing line!
The points of exclamation are my
own.
The above proposition, stated in gener-
al terms, resolves itself into this: That
a given animal will transmit not that
which it inherits, but that " hich it has
been educated to do, provided the educa-
ton has been sufficiently thorough as to
make the doing of the thing easy and
natural. Educate IN animal sufficiently
and you may change the breed. This is
pushing the principles of Lamarck to
their extreme limit. and | should like to
see "a solitary fact or a single scientific
opinion in support of this peculiar propo-
sition. The only foOthold such an APP
p%arentlv untenable statement can have is
upon the much-veXed question of the
transmissibility of acquired characters.
This is IA question which directly con-
Germs all breeders, and more especially is
of vital Importance to the breeder of the
trottlng horse. 1t may be of interest.
therefore. to attempt to trace. as briefly
as possible. the rise of this theory and
the current of thought on the suhiet, by
some of the leading scientific minds of
the century.
Tn great naturalist, Lamarck, in Il
work published at Paris about lSOS. was
the first who. among other extremely
speculative views for that day. called
prominent attention to the ''transmiSsi-
bility of acquired characters. He de-
pended entirely upon this doctrine for
his theory of the ''variation of species, =
but his speculations bad been almost for
gotten until the theory of evolution was
revived and placed on Il much broader and
more stable basis. by Darwin's epoch
Y,aI-in.r hcn1- ssIho nriuin Of Snanias -
published in 1853.
The scientific awakening that book
caused is now an old story. As early,
however, as 1868, Prof. Huxley, in one
of his Lectures to Working Men" has
this to say about Lamarck's doctrine,
viz.
He OLamarck) said it is a matter of eX-
perience that an animal may be modified
more or less in consequence of its desires
and consequent actions. If
Lamarck could have shown experiment
ally that even races of animals could be
produced in this way, there might have
been some ground for his speculations.
But he could show nothing of the kind,
and his hypothesis has pretty well drop
ped into oblivion. AS it deserved 10 do.
See Darwiniana Essays OS94), Vol. H.,
p. 1858
Prof. Huxley, be it remembered, is,
on the whole. IA generous critic of La
marck, and fully recognizes that this
scientist, while on the wrong road. was
in the right dir ection.
About this same time, Herbert Spen-
Ger was engaged in his great work, The
Principles of Biology" a masterful ex-
position of the theory of evolution as APP
piled to life. | am very we'll aware of
the fact that in the great drama of evo-
luton, then as now Spencer maintains
the in~adequacy of natural selection as in
itself an all-sutflcient cause. When,
however, he narrows himself down to
the much smaller question we are dis
cussing, but which is the all-impOrtant
question to the breeder, he proceeds with
caution. In writing of %''acquired modi-
~tication that has become hereditary" he
says that evidence of such changes I'm
animals is difficult to disentangle, and
among demonstrated animals in nearly
all cases, "artificial selection has Obscur-
ed the results" He mentions, however,
one example of the direct inheritance of
an acquired popularity, as follows
Mr.. Lewis gives a case. He had a
puppy taken from its mother at six
weeks old, who, although never taught
to beg Gan accomplishment his mother
had been taught, spontaneously tool to
begging for everything he wanted, when
about seven or eight months old. See
Vol. L., Sec. 81.
With this slight mention, Spencer dis
misses this particular part of the inquiry
from further consideration, and beyond
recording the incident evidently thinks
it of little moment. ! am inclined to
believe that Mr.. Lewis overlooked or
underestimate in the case of his ''pup-
Ply" the strong initiative faculties of ami
mails asnaciallv vOunO animals raoaII