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antagonistic influence being withdrawn they manifest themselves."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.