Pure and Impure Breeding. 9 1 



in breeding, any stain that exists may be eradicated in 

 eight generations ; that in the eighth descent there is 

 not any difiference to be detected in form and appear- 

 ance between the newly formed breed and the pure 

 parent stock. In other words, the pure blood infused 

 into the impure or inferior stock will have washed away 

 and obliterated all stains and flaws in eight descents. 

 There are others, however, who hold a different opinion ; 

 among those the Arabs. ' It is impossible,' says the 

 Emir Abd-el-Kader, ' we think, to get a pure race out 

 of a stock the blood of which is impure.' On the other 

 hand, it is a well-authenticated fact, it is quite possible 

 to restore to its primitive nobleness a breed that has 

 become impoverished, but without any taint in its blood. 

 In a word, a race may be restored, the degeneracy of 

 which has not been occasioned by any admixture of 

 blood. 



But allowing the opinion to be correct, that in eight 

 descents impure blood may be obliterated, to arrive at 

 the desired result it is necessary, in each and every 

 descent anterior to the ninth, to return on the male side 

 to the original pure blood. Now, certainly, as showai in 

 Chapter II., our horse, since the days of Flying Childers, 

 has not been so bred. I fail to trace any systematic 

 return to Arabian blood for the prescribed period of 

 eight generations ; or, indeed, a return to horses of only 

 Eastern blood. On the contrary, horses and mares 

 only partially descended from Eastern horses have been 

 bred from. 



But, after all, this system of breeding — namely, that of 



