68 LEWIS'S AMERICAN SPORTSMAN. 



HOW TO BREED. 



As we have already shown that confusion follows the mixing of 

 different strains, it is evident the only certainty of obtaining spe- 

 cific results lies in strict adherence to one strain, which has possessed 

 and transmitted the desired qualities for a number of generations, 

 thus proving its fixed character. This of course involves inter- 

 breeding, which is really the law of nature, as shown by the actions 

 of those wild animals which dwell continuously in herds. We can- 

 not, however, follow this law as far as animals in a state of nature, 

 owing to the fact that in them purely physical perfection is all that 

 is required, and this is secured by a direct provision for the survival 

 of the fittest through the law of force ; in other words, by the strong 

 destroying the weak. The domesticated dog is an artificial creature, 

 possessed of higher faculties thfcn his ancestors, and the development 

 of these, with also the enervating effect of an unnatural life, has 

 caused certain weaknesses which, common to all, are naturally spe- 

 cially shared in the same degree by those most closely related. By 

 interbreeding we of course obtain in some degree an intensifying of 

 these weaknesses, but this evil is more than compensated for by a 

 corresponding intensifying of the good qualities peculiar to the strain, 

 which cannot be got in any other way. There is of course a differ- 

 ence in individuals of the same strain, and by selecting those which 

 display the good qualities in the highest and the weaknesses in 

 the lowest degree; we get the best substitute for natural selection 

 and survival of the fittest, and thus secure the perpetuation of the 

 strain characteristics, with the greatest freedom from its defects. 

 By inbreeding, or breeding descendants of the same parents, we in- 

 tensify the good and bad qualities in equal proportions, and at the 

 same time we intensify the natural tendency to degeneration, which 

 is only corrected in other cases by counteracting influence. A very 

 good illustration of the effect of external influences is furnished by 

 the different results of the union of brothers with sisters, and that 

 of parents with offspring. In the former all the influences from 

 both individuals are precisely the same, but in the latter there is in 



