22 THE DESCRIPTIVE ANATOMY OF THE DOG. 



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not be taken without exceptions, since there must of necessity 

 be a due proportion of parts, or else the successive actions 

 necessary for speed will not take place in due order, and with 

 the proper regularity of stroke, and also because, by a well-known 

 mechanical law, what is gained in power is lost in speed or time. 

 This framework, then, of bones and muscles, when obtained of 

 good form and proportions, is so much gained towards our object ; 

 but still, without a good brain and nervous system to stimulate it 

 to action, it is utterly useless, and without a good heart and lungs 

 to carry on the circulation during its active employment, it will 

 still fail us in our need. Again, even if all these organs are 

 sound and formed of good proportions by nature, if mismanage- 

 ment or other causes interrupt their proper nutrition by digestion 

 and assimilation, the framework speedily falls away, and our hopes 

 are irrecoverably wrecked. 



THE HEAD. I have already said that, in my opinion, the 

 head should be large between the ears, and in a dog from twenty- 

 five to twenty-six inches high should measure at least fourteen 

 and a half inches in circumference midway between the eyes and 

 ears. This point is one which is not usually insisted on, many 

 coursers preferring the narrow and elegant head, which will 

 easily allow the neck-strap to slip over it. My own conviction 

 is so strong that I do not hesitate to advise the selection of the 

 head with a wider back to it, and as narrow and low as it can be 

 obtained between the eyes. Very little intelligence is required 

 in the greyhound ; and if it were possible to obtain the full 

 development of the appetite for his game, the seat of which is, 



