26 INTRODUCTION. 



and naturalists, have, I believe, invariably been ob- 

 served to approach a middling size, and to present a 

 head more pointed, and ears more erect, than those of 

 the domesticated breeds. The fore-quarters are found 

 deep, and the hinder extremities long, but muscular. 

 That such was the original size and form of the dog, 

 when first created, we are further warranted in con- 

 cluding, from the important fact before stated, that 

 dogs which had accidentally or purposely been left on 

 newly discovered countries, and in consequence again 

 became wild, predatory, and gregarious, had been 

 always observed to degenerate in their progeny towards 

 the same size, form, and character, as distinguished the 

 native wild breeds. The Asiatic or Indian dog, eaten 

 by some sects of the natives, and known in this coun- 

 try under the name of the Chinese dog, is, I am dis- 

 posed to believe, a very close representative of the 

 original wild dog. 



The form and character of the first dogs being lost, in 

 a great measure, in an endless succession of diversified 

 progeny, man has been enabled thereby to select par- 

 ticular varieties, either for use or ornament. Many of 

 these are probably the effect of chance ; but by far the 

 most important were artificially produced by man him- 

 self, who, by regulating the sexual intercourse, and by 

 propagating from such duplicates only as approached a 

 given form, has been enabled to effect the greatest 

 deviations from the original. In some instances, an 

 accidental deformity or variety was seized on and pro- 

 pagated by future selections, till it became permanent, 

 and then it constituted a distinct breed'K Many at- 



*^ See the article Breeding, where this part of the subject is con- 

 tinued. 



