Varieties of the Dog. 23 
In many: breeds, however, the neck is extremely long and 
swan-like ; and this point gives great power of reaching 
the hare without losing the stride, which would be a fatal 
drawback in the fast dog. 
The chest and neck together constitute the body or 
trunk. The chest is a conical cavity adapted to contain 
the lungs, heart, and great vessels, to protect them from 
injury, and to inflate the lungs by enlarging the capacity 
of the chamber which contains them. Such a cavity must 
therefore be of sufficient volume for the first purpose, of 
sufficient strength for the second, and of sufficiently vary- 
ing capacity for the third ; and all these offices the chest 
of the greyhound efficiently performs. But not only must 
it be thus formed, but it must also be so flattened on the 
sides that the shoulder-blades shall lie smoothly upon 
them, and have free play to extend themselves. In order 
to meet all these requirements, the chest of the.greyhound 
is deeper than in most animals, so as to give increase of 
volume without separating the shoulders too much, or 
placing their blades on too convex a surface. But if the 
chest is prolonged too far downwards, it strikes the ground 
in the efforts made to stop the speed at the turns, and in 
that way is prejudicial to the going of the dog. Thus a 
happy medium is required in this department, and the 
chest must be wide, but not too round, and deep, without 
being so much so as to interfere with the working powers. 
Besides these two points, it is important that the ribs shall 
_be well separated from each other, so that they may ex- 
pand the cavity properly, otherwise respiration is not per- 
formed with sufficient power and velocity. This width of 
the spaces is known to exist by the comparative length 
between the breast and the last rib at the loin ; but, again, 
this must not be too great, or the back is rendered weak, 
and incapable of those vigorous and quick efforts which 
the gallop requires. 
The back ought to be well let into the shoulders—that 
is to say, the muscles which compose it ought to run well 
forward towards the shoulder-blades, and should leave a 
strong ridge of muscle standing up above the ribs on each 
side of the spine. This is a very important point, and 
