44 Permanence and Evolution. 



made within certain limits fatter or leaner, more 

 precocious, agile, etc. Not that race characters . 

 go for nothing in these points, certain individuals 

 and certain families have aboriginally more 

 tendency to fat, etc., than others, previous to all 

 measures of functional gymnastics ; for this 

 reason certain strains became more famous than 

 others. And there is no reason to suppose that 

 this quality, namely, the possession with little 

 cultivation of excellencies, which in other strains 

 of the same breed can only be obtained by much 

 care, is less strictly inherited that any other 

 quality. 



The task of the breeder is thus twofold 

 to select such strains as present naturally the 

 required characters ; and, secondly, to assist 

 them by judicious hygiene, if the characters are 

 such as to admit of it, which is only the case 

 when the improvement required is in a large 

 sense of a hygienic nature. There is, therefore, 

 nothing more true than the remark of Youatt, 



