DEGENERATION OF ANIMALS. *J 



we are at the present day. It was ordered, according to Moses, 

 that, " Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind •/' 

 but mules were purchased, so that at this early period other 

 countries must have crossed the horse and the ass. It is 

 said Erichthonius, some gerierations before the Trojan war, had 

 many brood mai'es, which by his care and judgment in the choice 

 of stallions, produced a breed of horses superior to any in the 

 surrounding countries. Plato in his " Republic," says to Glaucus, 

 " I see that you raise at your house a great many dogs for the 

 chase. Do you take care about breeding and pairing them? 

 Among animals of good blood, are there not always some which 

 are superior to the rest?" To which Glaucus answers in the 

 affirmative. According to Pliny, King Pyrrhus had an especially 

 valuable breed of oxen ; and he did not suffer his bulls and cows 

 to come together until they were four years old, that the breed 

 might not degenerate. Virgil in his Georgics, (lib. 3) gives as 

 strong advice as any modern agriculturist could give — carefully to 

 select the breeding stock ; to note the tribe, the lineage and the 

 sire ; whom to reserve for the husband of the herd, &c. The 

 Romans even kept pedigrees of their pigeons, which shows con- 

 clusively that they must have taken great pains in breeding them. 

 Columella gives detailed instructions about breeding fowls : " Let 

 the breeding hens be of choice color, a robust body, square built, 

 full breasted, with large heads, with upright and bright red 

 combs." According to Tacitus, the Celts attended to the races of 

 domestic animals ; and Ctesar states that they paid high prices to 

 merchants for fine imported horses. In regard to plants, Virgil 

 speaks of yearly culling the largest seeds ; and Celcus says, 

 " Where the corn and the crop are small, we must pick out the 

 best ears of corn, and of them lay up our seed separately by 

 itself" — applying this same fundamental law of nature to the 

 vegetable kingdom. In the great work on China, published in the 

 last century by the Jesuits, and which is chiefly compiled from 

 ancient Chinese encyclopedise, it is said that with sheep, improving 

 the breed consists in choosing with particular care the lambs which 

 are destined for propagation, in nourishing them well, and in 

 keeping the flocks separate. The same principles were applied by 

 the Chinese to various plants and fruit trees. At about the begin- 

 ning of the ninth century, Charles the Great expressly ordered his 

 officers to take great care of his stallions ; and if any proved bad 

 or old, to forewarn him in good time before they were put to the 



