d is generally ascribed to the rum and diseases introduced by
the white man. It would now appear that other influences have also been
operative.

[14] Carpenter's Physiology, new edition, page 783.

CHAPTER IV.

ATAVISM, OR ANCESTRAL INFLUENCE.

It may not be easy to say whether this phenomenon is more connected
with the law of similarity, or with that of variation. Youatt, in his
work on cattle published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
Knowledge, inclines to the former. He speaks of it as showing the
universality of the application of the axiom that "like produces
like"--that when this "may not seem to hold good, it is often because
the lost resemblance to generations gone by is strongly revived." The
phenomenon, or law, as it is sometimes called, of atavism,[15] or
ancestral influence, is one of considerable practical importance, and
well deserves careful attention by the breeder of farm stock.

Every one is aware that it is nothing unusual for a child to resemble
its grandfather or grandmother or some ancestor still farther back,
more than it does either its own father or mother. The fact is too
familiar to require the citing of examples. We find the same
occurrence among our domestic animals, and oftener in proportion as
the breeds are crossed or mixed up. Among our common stock of neat
cattle, (_natives_, as they are often called,) originating as they
have done from animals brought from England, Scotland, Denmark, France
and Spain, each possessing different characteristics of form, color
and use; and bred, as our common stock has usually been,
indiscriminately together, with no special point in view, no attempt
to obtain any particular type or form, or to secure adaptation for any
particular purpose, we have very frequent opportunities of witnessing
the results of the operation of this law of hereditary transmission.
So common indeed is its occurrence, that the remark is often made,
that however good a cow may be, there is no telling beforehand what
sort of a calf she may have.

The fact is sufficiently obvious that certain peculiarities often lie
dormant for a generation or two and then reappear in subsequent
progeny. Stockmen often speak of it as "breeding back," or "crying
back." The cause of this phenomenon we may not fully understand. A
late writer says, "it is to be explained on the supposition that the
qualities were transmitted by the grandfather to the father in whom
they were _m