DOMESTIC DOGS 115 



Pomeranians. A breed equally ancient is the Eskimo dog, 

 which probably comes directly from the wolf. Both breeds 

 have retained the pointed, erect ears of their ancestors. 



Apart from all this there is, it must be allowed, scarcely 

 an animal which affords a more perfect example of pammixis 

 than the street dog of the East e.g. in Constantinople and 

 the house cat. In the former pammixis, which in our dogs 

 is troublesome, is unchecked. The animals carry on their 

 family life on road and path in sight of every one. The 

 mother drops her pups in the most crowded streets of the 

 city, and lies suckling and warming them in the middle of 

 the path, without avoiding man, who, if he be a Mohammedan, 

 disturbs her not, but habitually steps aside and leaves her in 

 peace. 



In spite of this pammixis in these dogs definite new mark- 

 ings, formed according to a law and identical with those of 

 our domestic dogs, have appeared, obviously in consequence 

 of new conditions of life. 



Why a definite shape of body has not been impressed on 

 domestic dogs I will not decide. Eeasons are not far to seek. 

 In any case, a continual struggle still occurs between the old 

 shape and the new. The external conditions in the regions in 

 which the dog has been domesticated are very various. He has 

 been modified in very different degrees in these different 

 regions. Crosses between the separate stages of modification 

 are always taking place, and man constantly by selection 

 seizes upon the result of these unions. In the Eastern dog 

 also this struggle between old and new still occurs, but man 

 does not interfere in it; in the Eastern dog, therefore, the 

 new characters are least obscured in their beginnings : through 

 this dog I was first led to the discovery of the law which the 

 markings follow. 



Dogs thus show, in my opinion, that new characters are 

 clue to external conditions and an internal direction of 



