OF PUPPIES. 107 



1 have already stated, that numerous and powerful oppo- 

 nents exist to the system of in and in breeding-, whose 

 opinions oug-ht to have their due influence when considering" 

 the question *. Sir John Sebright, who has been long- 

 known as a practical breeder and man of science, is under- 

 stood to have been always inimical to consanguineous breed- 

 ing. His opinions on the subject have, of late years, been 

 before the public, in a Letter on The Art of Improving the 

 Breeds of Domestic Animals ; and as great importance is 

 justly attributed to them, 1 shall, in candour, quote so much 

 as is necessary to shew the drift of his arguments. — He says, *' if 

 *' a breed cannot be improved, or even continued in the de- 

 ** gree of perfection at which it has already arrived, but by 

 " breeding from individuals, so selected as to correct each 

 " others defects, and by a judicious combination of their dif- 

 ** ferent properties (a position that I believe will not be de- 

 " nied), it follows that animals must degenerate by being 

 " long bred from the same family, without the intermixture of 

 *' any other blood, or from being what is technically called 

 " bred in-and-in." 



Against Mr. Bakewell's authority the ingenious Baronet 

 thus reasons : — " No one can deny the ability of Mr. Bake- 

 *' well in the art of which he may fairly be said to have 

 " been the inventor ; but the mystery with which he is well 

 '* known to have carried on every part of his business, and 

 " the various means which he employed to mislead the public» 

 '' induce me not to give that weight to his assertions, which I 

 " should do to his real opinion, could it have been ascer- 

 " tained." 



To Mr. Meynell's opinion on the subject, he replies — 

 *' ]Mr. Meynell's fox-hounds are quoted as an instance of the 



* The principal arguments, in my own mind, against this mode of 

 increase is, that hereditary diseases, which in some breeds are con- 

 siderable, are by this means perpetuated and probably increased ; and, 

 also, that when breeding by relationship is a settled practice, the acci- 

 dental defects are too apt to be passed over unobserved. 



H2 



