It is hardly possible, within a moderate compass, to impress on the mind of
those who have not attended to the subject, the full conviction of the
force of inheritance which is slowly acquired by rearing animals, by
studying the many treatises which have been published on the various
domestic animals, and by conversing with breeders. I will select a few
facts of the kind, which, as far as I can judge, have most influenced my
own mind. With man and the domestic animals, certain peculiarities have
appeared in an individual, at rare intervals, or only once or twice in the
history of the world, but have reappeared in several of the children and
grandchildren. Thus Lambert, "the porcupine-man," whose skin was thickly
covered with warty projections, which were periodically moulted, had all
his six children and two grandsons similarly affected.[5] The face and body
being covered with long hair, accompanied by deficient teeth (to which I
shall hereafter refer), occurred in three successive generations in a
Siamese family; but this case is not unique, as a woman[6] with a
completely hairy face was exhibited in London in 1663, and another instance
has recently occurred. Colonel Hallam[7] has described a race of two-legged
pigs, "the hinder extremities being entirely wanting;" and this deficiency
was transmitted through three generations. In fact, all races presenting
any remarkable peculiarity, such as solid-hoofed swine, Mauchamp sheep,
niata cattle, &c., are instances of the long-continued inheritance of rare
deviations of structure.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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