Breeding. 457 



If, however, the Kennel Club were to adopt a system of careful 

 registration, they would have in a few years an accumulation of facts 

 from which deductions could be safely made ; and the same means might 

 be used to elucidate points which, if at present they can be called facts, 

 are at least doubtful and obscure. 



In-and-in Breeding. This is a phase of the subject which has given 

 rise to much discussion, opinions in favour of and against the practice 

 being pretty equally divided. 



From my own observation and lessons gathered from the experience of 

 others, I am of opinion that close consanguineous breeding is the most 

 powerful means we have to determine character and establish type ; but, 

 if continued without a resort to the renovating influence of blood from a 

 removed, although, it may be, a collateral line, the result will be loss of 

 stamina and the production of a too nervous temperament. 



In-and-in breeding, in its strictest sense, is, of course, mating dogs 

 from the same sire and dam, and continuing that course. Sir John 

 Sebright, a high authority on such matters, carried out a series of 

 experiments in this direction with the result that his dogs became weak, 

 small, and weedy ; and other experimentalists agree with him. In-and- 

 in breeding is not, however, to be entirely neglected, for, as already 

 observed, when it is required to fix and determine a desirable mental 

 characteristic or physical trait possessed in common by brother and 

 sister of the same litter, to breed them together is the most certain way 

 to ensure its perpetuation ; and in this way only, I believe, can type be 

 established. And, to keep up the physique of the breed without destroy- 

 ing its distinctive features, breeding in the line that is, from animals of 

 collateral descent should be resorted to, and not from dogs of entirely 

 different blood. 



Breeding for Colour Breeding for Size or with any other such specific 

 object, must be undertaken on established physiological laws, and fully 

 taking into account that there are always complex influences at work, all 

 of which have to be considered and allowed for ; that like breeds like is 

 true only in a limited sense, for inherited characteristics on both sides, 

 even such as are latent in the individual, assert their influence and re- 

 appear. On this subject there is a pamphlet by Mr. W. B. Tegetmeier and 

 Mr. W. W. Boulton, M.E.C.S., called " Breeding for Colour, and the 

 Physiology of Breeding," which is well worth the careful perusal of 



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