36 



DOGS. 



Chap. I. 



as to the size of the animal." Different breeds of dogs are subject in 

 different degrees to various diseases. They certainly become adapted to 

 different climates under which they have long existed. It is notorious 

 that most of our best European breeds deteriorate in India. 65 The 

 Eev. E. Everest 66 believes that no one has succeeded in keeping the 

 Newfoundland dog long alive in India ; so it is, according to Lichtenstein, 67 

 even at the Cape of Good Hope. The Thibet mastiff degenerates on the 

 plains of India, and can live only on the mountains. 68 Lloyd 69 asserts that 

 our bloodhounds and bulldogs have been tried, and cannot withstand the 

 cold of the northern European forests. 



Seeing in how many characters the races of the dog differ 

 from each other, and remembering Cuvier's admission that 

 their skulls differ more than do those of the species of any 

 natural genus, and bearing in mind how closely the bones of 

 wolves, jackals, foxes, and other Canidse agree, it is remark- 

 able that we meet with the statement, repeated over and 

 over again, that the races of the dog differ in no important 

 characters. A highly competent judge, Prof. Gervais, 70 admits, 

 " si Ton prenait sans controle les alterations dont chacun de ces 

 organes est susceptible, on pourrait croire qu'il y a entre les 

 chiens domestiques des differences plus grandes que celles qui 

 separent ailleurs les especes, quelquefois meme les genres." 

 Some of the differences above enumerated are in one respect 

 of comparatively little value, for they are not characteristic of 

 distinct breeds : no one pretends that such is the case with the 

 additional molar teeth or with the number of mammte; the 

 additional digit is generally present with mastiffs, and some of 

 the more important differences in the skull and lower jaw are 

 more or less characteristic of various breeds. But we must not 

 forget that the predominant power of selection has not been 

 applied in any of these cases ; we have variability in important 

 parts, but the differences have not been fixed by selection. Man 



167) that the Italian greyhound is 

 "strongly subject" to polypi in the 

 matrix or vagina. The spaniel and 

 pug (p. 182) are most liable to bron- 

 chocele. The liability to distemper 

 (p. 232) is extremely different in dif- 

 ferent breeds. On the distemper, see 

 also Col. Hutchinson on • Dog Break- 

 ing,' 1850, p. 279. 



65 See Youatt on the Dog, p. 15 ; 



* The Veterinary,' London, vol. xi. p. 235. 



66 ' Journal of As. Soc. of Bengal,' 

 vol. iii. p. 19. 



6 7 « Travels,' vol. ii. p. 15. 



68 Hodgson, in ' Journal of As. Soc. of 

 Bengal,' vol. i. p. 342. 



69 ' Field Sports of the North of 

 Europe,' vol. ii. p. 165. 



70 ' Hist. Nat. des Mammif.,' 1855, 

 torn. ii. pp. 66, 67. 



