282 THE CROSSING, 4C, OF PIGS. 



has already been shown, been well-nigh eradicated, 

 leaving them to serve as the merest appendages to a 

 trunk, which, the more to vitiate the true ratio of the fea- 

 tures of the species, has been monstrously developed. 



It is manifest, then, that it is to the Pig, of all the 

 larger animals, to which recourse should be had, for 

 evidence of the theory, that the evil effects of inter- 

 breeding, are due to a departure from the mould, which 

 comprises the full development of all the characters of 

 the given species. 



If there was ever a species, under domestication, with 

 "serious defects in structure, or in the mutual relation 

 of the parts," it is the Pig, as it presents itself, when 

 "highly-bred." 



Similarly : If there was ever a species, under domes-- 

 tication, which displayed marked evil effects from in- 

 terbreeding, it is the Pig. To no other species, under 

 man's care, does Darwin's remark, that, " Highly-bred 

 animals are eminently liable to degeneration," so appro- 

 priately apply. For, it has been frequently remarked, 

 by breeders, unconscious of the cause of the phe- 

 nomenon they note, that the more improved the Pig, # 

 the more susceptible does it appear to be to the evils of 

 lessened fertility, and delicacy of constitution. 



Conformable to the presumption, raised by the great 

 reduction in the characters of the Pig, is the following 

 remark of Darwin : 



"With Pigs," says he (p. 151, Vol. ii, Animals and 

 Plants, &c), " there is more unanimity amongst 

 breeders, on the evil effects of close-interbreeding, than, 

 perhaps, with any other large animal!' 



