52 On Breeding In and In. 



complaint, as the poor animaPs contortions are very vi- 

 olent, running round and round, and frequently tum- 

 bling over and squealing violently ; and as he justly re-- 

 marks, it never attacks old hogs, and I believe 1 may al- 

 so remark, never attacks poor ones, but such as are in a 

 high state of health and keep ; from this circumstance 

 I supposed, that the disorder must be occasioned by 

 plethora and costiveness, and have succeeded com- 

 pletely in curing it, lately, by giving two table spoons- 

 full of castor oil, and cutting the end of the tail to 

 make it bleed. 



3. Breeding in and in. 



The subject of breeding in and in, I must acknow- 

 ledge, has been supported by such respectable evi- 

 dence, that I feel a diffidence in dissenting from them, 

 but yet, as Judge Peters remarks, *' I cannot be so 

 compliant as to abandon the repeated evidence of my 

 senses," and I am confident, that where ever I have 

 seen a trial made of it, that a constant deterioration has 

 taken place ; the bone becomes smaller, and perhaps 

 for the' second and third generation, the shape rather 

 handsomer, but a continual diminution of size takes 

 place ; perhaps however the greatest defect is a want of 

 increase, arising both from barrenness of the ewes, and 

 the lambs being so weak and sickly as to die in great 

 numbers. I saw an instance in Yorkshire, where an 

 old man kept a £ock of sheep without changing, till 

 at last, the flock diminished to almost nothing, but 

 coming under the management of a young man, he, by 

 crossing with good rams, in a little time had them 

 equal to his neighbours, almost all the observations I 

 have made on this subject have been on sheep, which, 



