THE REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEM 47 



breed, of which she was very fond. When it became necessary 

 to separate her on account of her heat from this dog", and to con- 

 fine her with one of her own kind, she pined excessively; and 

 notwithstanding her situation, it was some time before she would 

 admit of the attentions of the pug dog placed with her. At 

 length, however, she was warded ; impregnation followed, and at 

 the usual period she brought forth five pug puppies, one of which 

 was perfectly whiter and, although rather more slender than the 

 others, was nevertheless a genuine pug. The spaniel was soon 

 afterwards given away, but the impression remained ; for at two 

 subsequent litters (which were all she had afterwards) she again 

 presented me with a white pug pup, which the fanciers know to 

 be a very rare occurrence^. 



^ It is a curious fact, that each succeeding white puppy was less slender in 

 form than the preceding, though all were equally white ; which shewed, as 

 I have before stated, that this mental injfluence extends less perfectly to the 

 individual form, than to its external characters, particularly of colour, and 

 also that it lessens by time and absence. When, therefore, pups of com- 

 pletely different forms and kinds proceed from one litter, superfcetation has 

 occurred, and not mental influence. The Rev. R. Lascelles, in his Letters 

 on Sporting, p. 250, relates a case of a greyhound bitch, entrusted to the care 

 of a servant, which whelped one perfect greyhound and six complete curs : the 

 cvirs were the likeness of the dog she domesticated with in common ; the 

 single one resembled the greyhound she was taken to during her heat. There 

 is little reason therefore to doubt but that the bitch had been previously lined 

 by the cur, and the single greyhound pup was the effect of superfcetation. We 

 notice this to shew how easy a mistake between these two different causes may 

 occur, and how they may be distinguished. I was not fortunate enough to 

 rear either of my white puppies ; for one of which, at three months old, the 

 late Lord Kelly offered me fifteen guineas. 



Lord Morton bred from a male quagga and a chestnut mare. The mare 

 was afterwards bred from by a black Arabian horse ; but still the progeny ex- 

 hibited, in colour and mane, a striking resemblance to the quagga. D. Giles, 

 Esq. had a sow of the black and white kind, which was bred from by a boar 

 of the wild breed, of a deep chestnut colour : the pigs produced by this inter- 

 course were duly mixed, the colour of the boar being in some very predomi- 

 nant The sow was afterwards bred from by two of Mr. Western's boars, 

 and in both instances chestnut marks were prevalent in the litter, which, in 



