100 



GOOD FROM CKOSSING. 



Chap. XVII 



too far.^"^ But Sir J. Sebright, declares/^ that by breeding in-and-in, 

 by which he meaDS matching brothers and sisters, he has actually 

 Been the offspring of strong spaniels degenerate into weak and 

 diminutive lapdogs. The Kev. W. D. Fox has communicated to 

 me the case of a small lot of bloodhounds, long kept in the same 

 family, which had become vei-y bad breeders, and nearly all had a 

 bony enlargement in the tail. A single cross with a distinct strain 

 of bloodhounds restored their fertility, and drove away the tendency 

 to malformation in the tail I have heard the particulars of an- 

 other case with bloodhounds, in which the female had to be held to 

 the male. Considering how rapid is the natural increase of the 

 dog, it is difficult to understand the large price of all highly im- 

 proved breeds^ which almost implies long-continued close inter- 

 breeding, except on the belief that this process lessens fertility 

 and increases liability to distemper and other diseases. A high 

 authority, Mr. Scrope, attributes the rarity and deterioration in 

 size of the Scotch deerhound (the few individuals formerly existing 

 throughout the country being all related) in large part to close 

 interbreeding. 



With all highly-bred animals there is more or less difficulty in 

 getting them to procreate quickly, and all suffer much from delicacy 

 of constitution. A great judge of rabbits ^^ says, "the long-eared 

 does are often too highly bred or forced in their youth to be of much 

 value as breeders, often turning out barren or bad mothers." 

 They often desert their young, so that it is necessary to have 

 nurse-rabbits, but I do not pretend to attribute all these evil results 

 to close interbreeding.^*' 



With respect to Figs there is more unanimity amongst breeders 

 on the evil effects of close interbreeding than, perhaps, with any 

 other large animal. Mr. Druce, a great and successful breeder of 

 the Improved Oxfordshires (a crossed race), writes, "without a 

 change of boars of a different tribe, but of the same breed, constitu- 

 tion cannot be preserved." Mr. Fisher Hobbs, the raiser of the 



17 Stonehenge, ' The Dog,' 1867, pp. 

 175-188. 



1* 'The Alt of Improving the 

 Breed,' &c., p. 13. With respect to 

 Scotch deerhounds, see Scrope's 'Art 

 of Deer Stalking,' pp. 350-353. 



19 'Cottage Gardener,' 1861, p. 327. 



'^" Mr. Huth gives (' The Marriage 

 of Near Kin,' 1875, p. 302) from the 

 ' Bulletin de I'Acad. R. de Med, dc 

 Belgique' (vol. ix., 1866, pp. 287, 

 305), several statements made by a 

 M. Legrain with respect to crossing 

 brother and sister rabbits for five or 

 six successive generations with no 

 consequent evil results. I was so 

 much surprised at thih account, and 



at M. Legrain's invariable success 

 in his experiments, that I wrote to a 

 distinguished naturalist in Belsfium 

 to inquire whether M. Legrain was a 

 trustworthy observer. In answer, I 

 have heard that, as doubts were ex- 

 pressed about the authenticity of these 

 experiments, a commission of inquiry 

 was appointed, and that at a suc- 

 ceeding meeting of the Society (' Bull, 

 de I'Acad. E. de Med. de Belgique,' 

 1867, 3rd series. Tome 1, No. i to 

 5), Dr. Crocq repoj. ied " qu'il etait 

 materiellement impossible que M. Le- 

 grain ait fait les experiences qu'il 

 annonce." To this public accusation 

 110 satisfactory answer was made. 



