CHAPTER XII. 

 BEEEDING IN -AND -IN. 



Breeding in-and-in is ordinarily understood, in our 

 country, to mean breeding between relatives, without 

 reference to the degree of consanguinity ; and I shall 

 therefore use it in that sense in this work, specifying, when 

 there is occasion, whether the degree of consanguinity is 

 close or remote. But this is not the sense in which it has 

 been used by those eminent European writers who have done 

 so much to plant an inveterate prejudice against its very 

 name in the public mind. Sir John Sebright ranks among 

 the highest of these, and he did not consider procreation 

 between father and daughter, and mother and son, to be 

 breeding in-and-in ! Breeding between brother and sister 

 he thought might " be called a little close," but " should they 

 both be very good, and particularly should the same defects 

 not predominate in both, but the perfections of the one 

 promise to correct in the produce the imperfections of the 

 other, he did not think it objectionable!" And again, he 

 says breeding in-and in " may be beneficial, if not carried too 

 far, particularly in fixing any variety which may be thought 

 valuable." It is to be regretted that Sir John does not 

 define what he considers to be in-and-in breeding. I apprehend 

 that he means by it breeding the father with the daughter 

 and again with the grand-daughter, or the mother with the 

 son and again with the grand-son. In all the distinguished 

 British works I have ever perused on the subject, I have found 

 the same lack of definitions. The authors evidently vary in 

 the meaning they attach to the term, but I think I can 

 confidently say that none of them make it include breeding 

 between all relatives, or object to breeding, when there is 

 occasion for it, between relatives not of near consanguinity. 



It is a very prevalent impression in the United States, 

 particularly among those who have no personal experience 

 on the subject, that the inter-breeding of the most remote 



