CHAPTER IV. 



THE DOG CANIS FAMILIARIS. 

 THEORIES OF ORIGIN. 



ANY theories upon the origin of the dog 

 have been advanced by ancient and modern 

 writers, some claiming for him the honor 

 of a distinct race, and supporting this view 

 by the assertion of individual peculiarities, 

 and still more strongly by the assertion 

 that the descendants from crosses between 

 the dog and any of the animals he most 

 nearly resembles, and from which alone 

 he can have sprung, are true hybrids incapable of reproduction 

 inter se. If the latter could be sustained, it would prove the dis- 

 tinct character of the dog beyond question, since science accepts the 

 production of hybrid offspring as indubitable evidence of difference 



