OF iPUPPiEs. 93 



at length in this than in the former editions. To examine 

 the subject in all its bearing-s, it will be necessary to begin 

 ah ovo*, and to trace the animal from the very germ or ovum 

 of the mother, which, being vivified and called into action 

 by the sympathetic influence of the seminal fluid of the 

 father, bursts into life, and, after a gestatory period of sixty- 

 three days, presents (with a fraternity similarly situated) an 

 organized being, bearing the characteristic stamp of its spe- 

 cies, and usually a close resemblance to its parents. It is, 

 however, necessary here to notice a curious exception which 

 now and then occurs to this usual consangfuineous resem- 

 blance, apparently occasioned by some mental impression 

 received by the mother. This impression being always pre- 

 sent to the imagination, appears to serve as a stamp for 

 some, if not for all, of her future progeny. The existence of 

 this curious anomaly in the reproductive or breeding system, 

 is confirmed by facts of not unfrequent occurrence. 1 had a 

 pug bitch whose constant companion was a small and nearly 

 white spaniel dog, of Lord Rivers' breed, of which she was 

 very fond. When it became necessary to separate her, on 

 account of her heat, from this dog, and to confine her with 

 one of her own kind, she pined excessively ; and notwith- 

 standing her situation, it was some time before she would 

 admit of the attentions of the pug dog placed with her. At 

 length, however, she did so ; impregnation followed, and at 

 the usual period she brought forth five pug puppies, one of 

 which was elegantly u'^?>e, and more slender than the others. 

 The spaniel was soon afterwards given away, but the impres- 

 sion remained ; for at two subsequent litters (which were all 

 she had afterwards) she presented me with a white young 

 one, which the fanciers know to be a very rare occurrencet. 



* Ex ovo omnia. — Hervey. 



f It is a curious circumstance, that each succeeding white puppy was less 

 slender in form than the former, though all were equally white ; which shew- 

 ed, as I have before stated, that this mental influence extends less perfectly 

 to the individual form, than to its external characters, particularly of colour 3 

 and also that it lessens by time and absence. When, therefore, pups of com- 



