THE REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEM. 53 



ever, rather the effect of slow cultivation than of sudden and ex- 

 traordinary production. 



It has been before observed, that every variety or breed has a 

 tendency to degenerate, or travel backwards to something like the 

 original standard : this tendency is greatest in the accidental 

 varieties or breeds just hinted at, in which a few succeeding gene- 

 rations^^ is sufficient to destroy all appearances of variation from 

 the original ; but in breeds more nearly approaching the original, 

 as well as such as have been long established, it requires a much 

 longer time wholly to degenerate them. The tendency to resume 

 the original type is, however, inherent in all our domestic animals, 

 and in none more than the dog ; and judicious eflforts employed to 

 counteract this property form a principal part of the art of suc- 

 cessful breeding in rural economy. 



Notorious varieties or breeds are, therefore, the consequence of 

 our attempts at the improvement of such races of dogs, or of any 

 other domestic animals, as exhibited a constitutional tendency to 

 a particular form or character, the properties of which are either 



formity, added to great crookedness of the fore legs, rendered him unable 

 either to run or to break fences. With these qualities it was determined to at- 

 tempt a breed of this kind ; and, by confining the intercourse between him 

 and his futiure offspring, it succeeded, and the ancon or otter breed is now 

 established. The pure milk-white breeds which we witness now as permanent 

 among ferrets, rabbits, mice, &c. originally sprang from one accidental va- 

 riety of each. Man himself is not exempt from this departure from established 

 form and character, as we witness in the Albino, who presents the same 

 leuccethiopic constitutional characters in the deficiency of colouring matter, a 

 similar redness of iris and pupil, and consequently the same intolerance of 

 light, as the other white animals. There have been, and still exists, six- 

 fingered families : and Mr. Lawrence informs us that the thick lip, yet visible 

 in some noble Austrian families, was introduced by the marriage of the Em- 

 peror Maximilian with Mary of Burgundy. I have myself seen, in Sussex, a 

 breed of tailless cats. 



" Lord Orford bred between a bull-dog and a. greyhoimd : in seven de- 

 scents all traces of the cross were lost in form; but he conjectured that he 

 had gained an acquisition of courage and determination. Probably an acci- 

 dental deformity might have disappeaied sooner. 



