164 TRICHOLOGIA MAMMALIUM : 



ment more fully than I have, but with the same result. I am perfectly satisfied that the 

 fine woolled Sheep [the woolly Sheep] and the Goat will not mix. I know of no case 

 where it has been tried with the coarse hairy Sheep." 



From all that has been said, we feel warranted in believing that the best rule we possess 

 of discriminating between species, is to inquire whether NATURE has thrown any impedi- 

 ment between the animals to free sexual intercourse, and whether the progeny form a 

 permanent, self-supporting race of animals, which inherit equally the properties of both 

 parents. And we feel confident that a trial of the hairy Sheep and the woolly Sheep, by 

 this law, in order to ascertain whether they are one and the same, or two distinct species, 

 will result entirely in favor of the ground we have taken. 



The reader will be so good as to remark that we do not admit, as proof of belonging to 

 the same species, that animals, either domesticated or wild, will mix together nor that 

 they will have progeny incapable of continuing the breed nor that they will have progeny 

 capable of continuing the breed for a limited time, after which anew draft must be made 

 upon one of the original parents to prevent the breed from running out nor where they 

 have progeny capable of continuing the breed for a limited time, after which it runs out for 

 want of power to continue it; but we admit, as proof of belonging to the same species, a 

 breed where nature has thrown no impediment in the way of free sexual intercourse, and 

 where the progeny constitute a permanent, self-supporting race, partaking equally of the 

 properties of both parents. 



Mr. Youatt, when speaking of the attempt, in England, to amalgamate the Southdown 

 Sheep (which is itself a hybrid, being a mixture of the hairy and the woolly species,) with 

 the Leicester Sheep, (which belongs to the hairy species,) pronounces it "A FAILURE." 

 And he adds, that "the promised advantages to be derived from the mixture of the South- 

 down with the Merinos, "WERE DELUSIVE." (See Essay on Sheep, p. 233.) 



It is true that this author does not appear to be aware of the cause of this failure, nor 

 of the reason why the expectations, to which he has referred, were delusive; but he has 

 furnished us with the facts, and the inferences to be adduced from them are irresistible. 



Doctor Robert Knox, an English lecturer on anatomy, and corresponding member of 

 the National Academy of Medicine, in France, in a recent work upon the Races of Men, 

 (52,) says : " The theories put forth, from time to time, of the production of a new 

 variety, permanent and self-supporting, independent of any drafts or supplies from the 

 pure breeds, have been distinctly disproved. It holds neither in Sheep nor Cattle;" and 

 again, (in page 68:) "But the statement in question is not even true of Sheep; for by 

 no effort, saving that of constant, never-ceasing intermixture, or draughts on the pure 

 breeds, can a mixed breed be maintained." 



So, Col. Randall (in Sheep Husbandry in the South, p. 170,) admits, that any attempt 

 to unite the Merinos and the Leicesters, by crosses, is AN UNQUALIFIED ABSURDITY. 



It is true that this last gentleman, (incautiously, as we presume,) advises the crossing 

 of the Southdown and the Merino ; but such crossing of a hybrid, formed from an amal- 

 gamation of the two species, with the pure race, of one of the species, is no less an 

 "unqualified absurdity," although the reason may not, at first, be quite so apparent to 

 every one. 



