206 KENNEL SECRETS. 



ance acquired he will be fairly started and may hope to 

 make breeding a success. But until he has reached this 

 point he will do well to consult some acknowledged and 

 disinterested authority in his line of dogs, and in the 

 selection of sires act as he advises. 



A very erroneous notion is prevalent regarding the 

 influence of the previous sire on produce, and a hasty 

 glance at the subject can properly be taken here. 



Cases are on record in which bitches had litters by 

 dogs of other breeds than their own and subsequent 

 offsprings by dogs of their Own kind exhibited traces of 

 the previous sires ; and such instances, while extremely 

 rare, have yet been too many and too well authenticated 

 to be denied or explained away on the hypothesis of coin- 

 cidence. 



Various theories have been set forth as explanations of 

 these exceptional phenomena, and as the writer has none 

 to advance he will confine himself to mere review and 

 passing criticism. 



The first that found any considerable acceptance had its 

 origin some twoscore years ago, but soon passed out of 

 sight to be revived and brought into prominence by Sir 

 Everett Millais of England, who gave it his indorse- 

 ment. 



This, in a nutshell, is, that the life-giving germ can 

 penetrate the serous coat of the ovary, burrow into its 

 parenchyma and seek out immature ova, not to, be ripened 

 and discharged perhaps for years, and to produce the 

 modifying influence described. 



At the present time this theory is incapable of proof or 

 disproof, but the careful student can but acknowledge that 

 it is plausible, and after a consideration of the different . 

 theories the author of this must seem to him to have at 

 least approached nearer the border of the true solution. 



