THE REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEM. 55 



one or two young to remain in a litter : we should not only feed 

 the mother liberally, but it would be proper early to accustom the 

 young to eat of animal food also ; adding to all these the free access 

 of air, ample room, and opportunity for full exercise. But, above 

 all, the permanency of a breed must depend on the judicious selec- 

 tion of individuals as parents, which, having the specified and defi- 

 nite form in the greatest degree, are enabled in their progeny to 

 perpetuate the same. This care, when long continued^ of confin- 

 ing to particular races or breeds the means of continuing their spe- 

 cies, constitutes what is termed pur iti/ of blood. Immense import- 

 ance is attached to this purity of blood, or lineal descent, amongst 

 the breeders of almost every kind of domestic animaU^. The 

 scientific sportsman acknowledges it, in its fullest degree, in the 

 genealogy of his dogs ; and experience teaches him that a certain 

 degree of perfection, once gained, can only be continued by suc- 

 cessive propagation from the blood or same stock. 



In our selection of parents for multiplying a breed, a variety 

 of circumstances should necessarily engage our attention ; as, 

 whether we are continuing a race already established, improving 

 a defective one, or altogether forming a new variety. In either 

 case, but particularly in the two latter, one or two propagations 

 are not sufficient to enable us to judge of the merits or demerits 

 of the products : anomalies may occur, monstrosities appear, or our 



" The care taken by the Arabs in preserving the breeds of their horses is 

 most remarkable. None but stallions of the finest form and purest blood are 

 allowed access to their mares, which is never done but in the presence of a 

 professional witness or public officer, who attests the fact, records the names, 

 and signs the pedigree of each. The Circassians distinguish the various races 

 of their horses by marks on the buttocks. When a noble mark is put on an 

 ignoble breed, the forgery is punished with death. Pallas's Travels in the 

 Southern Provinces of the Russian Empire, chap. 14. — In Persia, almost equal 

 ceremony takes place when a breed is undertaken between some of their most 

 highly-prized dogs. In England, stallions have been sold for 1000 guineas, 

 bulls for 300, and rams for the same. The celebrated Yorkshire greyhomid, 

 called Snowball, lined bitches at three guineas each. Such estimation is 

 purity of blood and regularity of descent held in. 



