28 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE DOG. 



Var. P — Bull dog, Can. fam. molossuSy Lin. ; Le dogue. Buff. 

 Canis, pugn. prop.^'^ — Sub-variety, dog of Thibet. 

 "• Linnaeus appears to us to have fallen into error in naming this Molossus ; 

 but his error was less than that of BulFon, who considered the bull-dog to be 

 the parent of the mastiff. Had he reversed these suppositions, we should not 

 have so widely dissented from him ; he might also without any offence to pro- 

 bability have fallen in with the opinion of the late Sydenham Edwards, who to 

 much acquirement as a naturalist added a particular attachment to this dog. 

 He was of opinion that the bull-dog is derived from an accidental or designed 

 mixture between the large mastiff and the pug-dog (see figure), which was 

 then known as the Dutch, or small mastiff; and which, it must be observed, 

 is neither in Holland or Germany the artificial animal we rear, but, on the 

 contrary, as I have seen it there, is much larger and fiercer than our degene- 

 rate race : and it must be allowed, that a progeny derived from it in this form 

 by means of the mastiff, might soon be cultivated into the bull-dog. That 

 the origin of the bull- dog is wholly artificial is evident ; for such a dog could 

 not live in a state of nature ; and that he draws this artificial origin from 

 British cultivation, is equally so, from the degeneration which invariably takes 

 place when he is transported into distant countries. There is a brutal courage 

 about this dog, called forth on the slightest excitement, as an accidental noise, 

 &c., which particularly characterises the breed ; and his anatomical framing 

 altogether is eminently formed to retain the hold it takes of any thing, by the 

 recession of its nostrils, which do not thus interfere with respiration, as well as 

 by the power with which its masseter muscles can act on jaws whose place of 

 seizure are so little removed from the centre of motion. Mr. Griffith ob- 

 serves, ** The internal changes which determine the external characters of 

 this dog consist in a great development of the frontal sinuses, a development 

 which elevates the bones of the forehead above the nose, and which leads in 

 the same direction the cerebral cavity. But the most important change, and 

 that perhaps which causes all the others, although we cannot perceive the con- 

 nexion, is the diminution of the brain. The cerebral capacity of the bull- 

 dog is sensibly smaller than in any other race ; and it is, doubtless, to the de- 

 crease of the encephalon that we must attribute its inferiority to all others in 

 every thing relating to intelligence. The bull- dog is scarcely capable of any 

 education, and is fitted for nothing but combat and ferocity, which attributes 

 are exemplified in bull- baitings, where this ferocious animal, having fixed 

 himself on the under lip of the baited bull, savagely maintains hold spite of 

 every endeavour of the baited beast to dislodge him. This dog, like all other 

 races far removed from the primitive type, is difficult of reproduction : the 

 males are seldom amorous, and the females frequently miscarry. Their life, also, 

 is short, although their development is slow : they scarcely acquire maturity 

 under eighteen months, and at five or six years shew signs of decrepitude." 



