Chap. I UNCONSCIOUS SELECTION. 43 



It may be objected that the principle of selection has been 

 reduced to methodical practice ibr scarcely more than three- 

 quarters of a century ; it has certainly been more attended to 

 of late years, and many treatises have been published on the 

 subjc^ct ; and the result has been, in a correspondinjr degree, rapid 

 and important. But it is very far from true that the jjrinciple is 

 a modern discovery. I could give several references to the full 

 acknowledgment of the importance of the principle in woiks 

 of higli anti(iuity. In rude and barbarous periods of English 

 history, choice animals -were often imported, and laws were 

 passed to prevent their exportation : the destruction of horses 

 imdcr a certain size was ordered, and this may be comjiared 

 to tlic " roguing " of plants by nurserymen. Tlic principle of 

 selection 1 lind distinctly given in an ancient Chinese encyclo- 

 pajdia. Exjilicit rules are laid down by some of the Roman 

 classical writers. From passages in Genesis, it is clear that 

 the color of domestic animals was at that early period attended 

 to. Savages now sometimes cross their dogs with wild canine 

 animals, to improve the breed, and they formerly did so, as is 

 attested by passages in Pliny. The savages in South Africa 

 match their draught^cattle by color, as do some of the PJsqui- 

 maux their teams of dogs. Livingstone states that good do- 

 mestic breeds arc highly valued by the negroes in the interior 

 of Africa who have not associated with Euroj^eans. Some of 

 these facts do not show actual selection, but they show that 

 the breeding of domestic animals was carefully attended to in 

 ancient times, and is now attended to by the lowest savages. 

 It would, indeed, have been a strange fact, had attention not 

 been paid to breeding, for the inheritance of good and bad 

 qualities is so obvious. 



Unconscious Selection. 



At the present time, eminent breeders try by methodical 

 selection, with a distinct object in view, to make a new strain 

 or sul>breed, superior to any thing existing in the country. 

 But, for our purpose, a kind of Selection, which may be called 

 Unconscious, and which results frojn every one trying to pos- 

 sess and breed from the best individual animals, is more im- 

 portant. Thus, a man who intends keeping pointere naturally 

 tries to get as good dogs as he can, and afterward breeds from 

 his own best dogs, but he has no wish or exjiectation of per- 

 manently altering the breed. Nevertheless, we may infer that 



