474 DOGS USED FOR SPORT. 



8. While breeding continuously from the nearest relations tends 

 to a weakened constitution, the aggravation of any taint in the 

 blood, and to sterility, these may be avoided by infusing at inter- 

 vals fresh blood of the same family, but which has been bred apart 

 from this branch for several generations. Moreover the highest 

 excellence is sometimes attainable only by breeding very closely 

 for a time. 



9. Diseased or mutilated animals are generally to be discarded 

 from breeding. Mutilations resulting from disease, disease exist- 

 ing during pregnancy, and disease with a constitutional morbid 

 taint, are above all, to be dreaded as transmissible. 



10. There is some foundation for the opinion that the dog tends 

 to contribute more to the locomotion and external organs, nerve 

 and vigor, and the bitch to the size and internal organs, so that if 

 we cannot obtain the greatest excellence in both, we should at 

 least seek to have each unexceptionable in the parts and qualities 

 attributed to it. 



11. Judicious breeding in-and-in, improves the animal in the 

 points desired, only when possessed by both male and female ; but 

 the mixing of two utterly distinct races, with the view of uniting 

 the valuable properties of both, is to be condemned. 



12. While early maturity may be attained, animals that grow 

 rapidly are less firm in tissue, and break down sooner than those 

 of slow growth ; hence, while the breeder may be benefited by 

 pursuing the forcing process, the purchasers, especially of those 

 animals intended for active field work, will be more or less the 

 sufferers. The terms cultivation and improve7nent, as used by 

 breeders, too frequently are but imposing synonyms for the arti- 

 ficial induction of disease, premature development, and systematic 

 degeneration. 



SHOULD DOGS BE ALLOWED TO BREED AT PUBERTY.? 



The process of reproduction is the most characteristic, and in 

 many respects the most interesting of all the phenomena presented 

 by organized bodies. It includes the whole history of the changes 

 taking place in the organs and functions of the individual at suc- 

 cessive periods of life, as well as the production, growth, and 



