to be mentioned here:--

Seth Wright, who possessed a small farm on the Charles River,
about sixteen miles from Boston, had a small flock, consisting
of fifteen ewes and one ram. One of these ewes, in 1791, produced
a singular-shaped male lamb. Wright was advised to kill his former
ram and keep this new one in place of it; the consequence was, the
formation of a new breed of sheep, which gradually spread over a
considerable part of New England, but the introduction of the Merino
has nearly destroyed them again. This new variety was called the
Otter, or "Ankon" breed. They are remarkable for the shortness of
their legs, and the crookedness of their forelegs, like an elbow.
They are much more feeble and much smaller than the common sheep,
and less able to break over low fences; and this was the reason
of their being continued and propagated.

Here we have an instance of an animal propagating a defect through
a great number of descendants, though it had not acquired it from
its own ancestors. It is, however, probable that occasionally a male
descendant of this short-legged ram possessed considerably longer organs
of locomotion than the founder of his breed; and, consequently, if
selected for breeding purposes might become the founder of a long-legged
variety, in which, however, a couple of pairs of short-legs would
occasionally present themselves. I have a notion that the higher animals
are in the scale of being, the greater is their tendency to transmit
their acquired good or bad habits to their posterity. Dogs are, perhaps,
the most intelligent of the inferior animals, and it is well known
that they transmit to their offspring their acquired as well as their
natural habits. I doubt very much that those most stupid of creatures,
guinea-pigs, possess this property in any sensible degree; or, indeed,
that like the canine tribe, they can be readily made to acquire
artificial peculiarities: but there once flourished a "learned pig,"
and it would be worth inquiring whether or not its descendants, like the
descendants of the trained setter, and pointer, were at all benefited by
the education of their ancestor. I shall conclude this part of my subject
in the words of Professor Tanner: "In all cases where the breed has been
carefully preserved pure, great benefit will result from doing so. The
character of a breed becomes more and more concentrated and confirmed in
a pedigre