Dear Sir,

I take the liberty of sending you an account of a family in which blindness is inherited. To an investigator like yourself I think every additional fact that can be obtained must be important and interesting.²

Count Tannenburg, in Tyrol, when young had the full use of his eyes. Later in life he became blind from amaurosis. While yet in possession of his sight he begot 1 son, Rudolph, born blind, and ⁠⟨⁠3 dau⁠⟩⁠ghters, of whom 2 were ⁠⟨⁠bli⁠⟩⁠nd and the third not so.³ This last daughter is still alive, married to Count Enzenberg,⁴ and though now an old lady enjoys the full use of her eyes. She has 5 sons and one daughter, none of whom are blind. One daughter is married and has several children, none of them blind. But 2 of the sons—24 and 27 years of age—have the infirmity of being unable to distinguish red and blue colors.

I cannot say for certain if the Count Tannenburg mentioned above—the father of Rudolf—was the first of the family afflicted with blindness, but I think not.

You will, I am sure, excuse me if I presume to make a remark on an assertion of yours in your work on “Animals & Plants under Domestication”. At page 32 Vol II. you say “Sheep never become feral”.⁵ My experience is at variance with this assertion; and in the mountains when a sheep strays from the flock it becomes as wild as a chamois and is shot like any wild animal. Such sheep never return and can never be recovered, for they flee at the mere approach of any human being. On this subject which is extremely curious, you will some facts in a note at Page 92 of the 2^nd edition of my “Chamois Hunting in the mountains of Bavaria”⁶ At p 103 are also some remarks about the goat.

In mountanious districts—I speak of Bavaria & the Tyrol— it is of common occurrence that one or two sheep run wild when on the mountain pastures.

The same thing has been observed in Scotland, as it would seem from a line I found in some scott⁠⟨⁠ish⁠⟩⁠ ⁠⟨⁠au⁠⟩⁠thor but whether in ⁠⟨⁠    ⁠⟩⁠ or the Ettrick shepherd ⁠⟨⁠was⁠⟩⁠ unable to say.

“Even sheep ran wod (mad) and furious”:

The circumstance was accounted for as being the work of a witch Marjore Nutchie.⁷ However it is, as it seems to me, interesting as affirming the fact that sheep do occasionally return to a wild state.

A note at P. 117 of another book of mine “Forest Creatures”⁸ might perhaps interest you, as showing how varieties of the same race may live in a wild state in juxta- position and still keep distinct.

Among wild boars I ⁠⟨⁠have⁠⟩⁠ seen occasionally one ⁠⟨⁠    ⁠⟩⁠ litter of a white color like the domesticated pig. And it is impossible that this could have arisen from a chance cross with the common pig, as such forests where the wild boars were, had strong fences round them, so that no animal enter could enter.

Such an animal varying from the black wild-boar type, is always shot at once, to prevent any propagation of this deviation from the original color.

Your very Obedient Servant | Charles Boner