56 THE REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEM. 



dogs may breed back. It should likewise be always present to 

 us, that, in despite of all our care, and in face of the most favour- 

 able opportunities for selection, still perfect specimens to propa- 

 gate from are unattainable ; and as, therefore, we are necessarily 

 to expect defects, it should be our care to well examine that we 

 do not select our male and female parents with each the same 

 faulty form or property; for, however perfect they may be in 

 other respects, they are, in such a case, totally unfit to breed from 

 together. We may, for instance, suppose an otherwise eligible 

 pair of pointers of the purest blood, but that each, from early and 

 constant confinement, had contracted long, weak, spreading pha- 

 langes or toes, instead of a round, cat-like form of foot. By 

 choosing a mate for each of these whose feet were unusually small, 

 round, and firm, we might remedy this defect, and preserve their 

 excellencies ; but it would be only propagating deformity to breed 

 from them together. We can only expect to prove successful in 

 rearing a superior race of any domestic animal, when we make 

 our selection of parents with a careful reference to the merits and 

 defects in each, by balancing the one against the other, and by 

 thus combining their different properties. It is by inattention to 

 these circumstances that so many persons, after giving immense 

 prices for animals of particular stocks, have found themselves foiled 

 in their attempts at rearing any thing beyond mediocrity, which 

 animals under the judicious management of a Russell, a Coke, or 

 an Ellman, among cattle, or an Orford, a Meynell, a Rivers, or a 

 Topham, among dogs, would have produced unrivalled forms. 



It is no less to be understood, that it is not the form only that 

 we can alter or bring into an hereditary line ; the aptitudes and 

 qualities may also be cultivated and made to descend in succession 

 equally with the external form. Temper, sagacity, and aptnesss 

 to receive instruction, are all hereditary, and are all equally to be 

 taken into the account by a breeder. Some breeds of pointers 

 require little breaking, but the first time they come on game they 

 exhibit the required properties with nearly the steadiness of an 

 old dog. A common fault is often committed by theoretical and 



