THE MOLOSSIAN GROUP. 729 



tinguish him from the true Mastiff. His muzzle is very 

 short and truncated, the jaws are large and powerful, the 

 lower projecting beyond the upper ; and, corresponding with 

 the strength of these organs, is the expansion of the tempo- 

 ral and other muscles employed in moving them. The fore- 

 head is short, and the cranium is extended in breadth pos- 

 teriorly, producing an excessive expansion behind the ears, 

 shall we say, of the region of the brain, indicative of the in- 

 stinct to destroy, which many believe the same conformation 

 to indicate, even in the human species ? His loins and pos- 

 terior extremities are relatively small, but his neck is very 

 thick, and the muscles of the breast and shoulder are largely 

 developed. His fore-limbs are bent outwards above, so as 

 to afford a sufficient basis of support to his broad and mas- 

 sive chest. 



All the habits of this fierce and dangerous dog indicate the 

 predominance of the purely animal propensities over those 

 faculties which, in the lower animals as well as in man, we 

 may term intellectual. He is less apt to receive the impres- 

 sions we seek to convey to him than any of the larger dogs. 

 He defends, indeed, our persons and property with deter- 

 mined resolution, but this is rather by the exercise of brute 

 force than by the manifestation of those powers which cha- 

 racterise the services of our superior dogs. He follows si- 

 lently at the heels of his master, runs fiercely at other ani- 

 mals, and bites without giving that warning by the voice 

 which other dogs are in use to give. He sullenly repulses 

 the advances of strangers, and shews none of that forbear- 

 ance towards the weak of his own kind which the nobler 

 mastiff displays ; and he is almost the only dog that does 

 not seem to respect the weakness of the child. He feels his 

 own strength, but seems to be incapable of measuring that 

 which is opposed to him. Thus, he will fly at the throat of 

 the lion or the tiger as freely as at a calf, when a single 

 stroke of the paw of one of these terrible creatures would 

 lay him dead in an instant. When he seizes an animal he 



