14 THE BREEDING PROBLEM. 



whether they be the result of a " sport " or of external inflnences, appears to 

 be, that wlion such variations from the. connnon tyi)e are in antujijonisni to tlie 

 conditions of liie to wliich the individual is suhjeclcd, the variations are not 

 perpetuated; while, on the oilier !i;nid, if they an; in conformity to the exist- 

 ing wants or conditions, add natural selection, and a survival of the fittest will 

 tend to perpetuate them. 



From the foregoing it is evident that the laws of heredity tend to reproduce 

 in the progeny the character of the ancestors ; and that when the ancestry is 

 of a fixed and uniform type, the maxim that " like produces like " admits of 

 few exceptions. Yet there are exceptions even here, as we have seen in 

 the case of sports ; and the modifications produced by changed conditions of 

 life, adaptation to new uses, and new modes of subsistence, tend to vary what, 

 under the operation of the unrestricted laws of heredity, would fix a given 

 type, and leave the breeder's art powerless to effect change or improvement. 



As to the results to be attained from the employment for breeding' 

 purposes, of animals that from accident or unaccountable cause exhibit 

 marked peculiarities, either physical or mental, or when they possess 

 great excellencies or great and serious defects or vices, the following 

 principles and facts taken from an able article in the same journal, 

 and written by a medical gentleman, are expressed in terms both 

 instructive and entertaining: 



"Where two races of men, or species of animals, are crossed, the superior 

 race or species generally predominates. The same rule holds with regard to 

 crosses of the same race or species ; the superior blood taking precedence over 

 the inferior, all other things being equal. 



In the laws of transmission by descent are doubtless to be found the secret 

 of the rise and decadence of nations, and the improvement and retrogression 

 of stock. Race after race of men have risen to a high plane of civilization, 

 and then again deteriorated to almost savage barbarism, being overcome or 

 supi^lanted by others often of a higher degree of intelligence than the 

 supplanted race had ever attained. An instance of this is seen in the native 

 American or red man being overcome by the more highly endowed European. 

 The Malayan and Papuan races are fast retrograding ; being examples of tlie 

 dying-out process. Modern Arabians, Tur]vs, Eg^'ptians, Italians, and even 

 Greeks, are known to be far inferior, in every essential particular, to their 

 progenitors; the Anglo-Saxon, Slavonic and Teutonic races are rapidly 

 ab.sorbing them, and taking their place, and the time is not far distant when 

 those ancient nations will be known only in history. Without further 

 referring to these laws, as relating to the physiological changes at present 

 being developed among the races of the earth, it is sufficient to say that, from 

 the present prospect, the nations possessing the greatest admixture of Slavonic, 

 Teutonic, Celtic, Pelasgic and Iberian elements will continue to be in the 

 ascendant; while, doubtless, as these elements separate or approach their 

 original type of the race, they will decline in many important characteristics. 

 This theory, exemplified by the thorough admixture of blood (within our 



