Chapter 5

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 _masked_ by the presence of some antagonistic or controlling influence, and were thence transmitted to the son in whom the antagonistic influence being withdrawn they manifest themselves." A French writer on Physiology says, if there is not inheritance of paternal characteristics, there is at least an _aptitude_ to inherit them, a disposition to reproduce them; and there is always a transmission of this aptitude to some new descendants, among whom these traits will manifest themselves sooner or later.[16] Mr. Singer, let us say, has a remarkable aptitude for music; but the influence of Mrs. Singer is such that their children inheriting her imperfect ear, manifest no musical talent whatever. These children however have inherited the disposition of the father in spite of its non-manifestation; and if, when they transmit what in them is latent, the influence of their wives is favorable, the grand-children may turn out musically gifted.

The lesson taught by the law of atavism is very plain. It shows the importance of seeking "thorough-bred" or "well-bred" animals; and by these terms are simply meant such as are descended from a line of ancestors in which for many generations the desirable forms, qualities and characteristics have been _uniformly shown_. In such a case, even if ancestral influence does come in play, no material difference appears in the offspring, the ancestors being all essentially alike. From this stand point we best perceive in what consists the money value of a good "pedigree." It is in the evidence which it brings that the animal is descended from a line all the individuals of which were alike, and excellent of their kind, and so is almost sure to transmit like excellencies to its progeny in turn;--not that every animal with a long pedigree full of high-sounding names is necessarily of great value as a breeder, for in every race or breed, as we have seen while speaking of the law of variation, there will be here and there some which are less perfect and symmetrical of their kind than others; and if such be bred from, they may likely enough transmit undesirable points; and if they be mated with others possessing similar failings, they are almost sure to deteriorate very considerably.

Pedigree is valuable in proportion as it shows an animal to be descended, not only from such as are purely of its own race or breed, but also from such individuals in that breed as were specially noted for the excellencies for which that particular breed is esteemed. Weeds are none the less worthless because they appear among a crop consisting chiefly of valuable plants, nor should deformed or degenerate plants, although they be true to their kind, ever be employed to produce seed. If we would have good cabbages or turnips, it is needful to select the most perfect and the soundest to grow seed from, and to continue such selection year after year. Precisely the same rule holds with regard to animals.

The pertinacity with which hereditary traits cling to the organization in a latent, masked or undeveloped condition for long after they might be supposed to be wholly "bred out" is sometimes very remarkable. What is known among breeders of Short-horns as the "Galloway alloy," although originating by the employment for only once of a single animal of a different breed, is said to be traceable even now, after many years, in the occasional development of a "smutty nose" in descendants of that family.

Many years ago there were in the Kennebec valley a few polled or hornless cattle. They were not particularly cherished, and gradually diminished in numbers. Mr. Payne Wingate shot the last animal of this breed, (a bull calf or a yearling,) mistaking it in the dark for a bear. During thirty-five years subsequently all the cattle upon his farm had horns, but at the end of that time one of his cows produced a calf which grew up without horns, and Mr. Wingate said it was, in all respects, the exact image of the first bull of the breed brought there.

Probably the most familiar exemplification of clearly marked ancestral influence among us, is to be found in the ill-begotten, round-breeched calves occasionally, and not very unfrequently, dropped by cows of the common mixed kind, and which, if killed early, make very blue veal, and if allowed to grow up, become exceedingly profitless and unsatisfactory beasts; the heifers being often sterile, the cows poor milkers, the oxen dull, mulish beasts, yielding flesh of very dark color, ill flavor and destitute of fat. They are known by various names in different localities, in Maine as the "Whitten" and "Peter Waldo" breed, in Massachusetts as "Yorkshire" and "Westminster," in New York as the "Pumpkin buttocks," in England as "_Lyery_" or "_Lyery_ Dutch," &c., &c.

Those in northern New England are believed to be descended chiefly from a bull brought from Watervliet, near Albany, New York, more than forty years ago, (in 1818,) by the Shakers at Alfred, in York county, Maine, and afterwards transferred to their brethren in Cumberland county. No one who has proved the worthlessness of these cattle can readily believe that any bull of this sort would have been knowingly kept for service since the first one brought into the State, and yet it is by no means a rare occurrence to find calves dropped at the present time bearing unmistakable evidence of that origin.

It seems likely that this disagreeable peculiarity was first brought into the country by means of some of the early importations of Dutch or of the old Durham breed.

Culley, in speaking of the Short-horns, inclines to the opinion that they were originally from Holland, and himself recollected men who in the early part of their lives imported Dutch cattle into the county of Durham, and of one Mr. Dobinson he says, he was noted for having the best breed of Short-horns of any and sold at high prices. "But afterwards some other persons of less knowledge, going over, brought home some bulls that introduced the disagreeable kind of cattle called _lyery_ or _double lyered_, that is, black-fleshed. These will feed to great weight, but though fed ever so long will not have a pound of fat about them, neither within or without, and the flesh (for it does not deserve to be called beef) is as black and coarse grained as horse flesh. No man will buy one of this kind if he knows any thing of the matter, and if he should be once taken in he will remember it well for the future; people conversant with cattle very readily find them out by their round form, particularly their buttocks, which are turned like a black coach horse, and the smallness of the tail; but they are best known to the graziers and dealers in cattle by the _feel_ or _touch_ of the fingers; indeed it is this nice touch or feel of the hand that in a great measure constitutes the judge of cattle."

FOOTNOTES:

[15] From the Latin _Atavus_--meaning any ancestor indefinitely, as a grandmother's great grandfather.

[16] "S'il n'y a pas héritage des caractéres paternels il y a donc au moins _aptitude_ à en heriter, disposition à les reproduire, et toujours cette transmission de cette aptitude à des noveau descendants, chez lesquels ces mêmes caractéres se manifesteront tôt ou tard."--_Longet's_ "_Traite de Physiologie_," ii: 133.