34 METHODICAL SELECTION. Chap. I. 



barbarous periods of English history choice animals were 

 often imported, and laws were passed to prevent their 

 exportation : the destruction of horses under a certain 

 size was ordered, and this may be compared to the 

 " roguing " of plants by nurserymen. The principle of 

 selection I find distinctly given in an ancient Chinese 

 encyclopaedia. Explicit rules are laid down by some of 

 the Koman classical writers. From passages in Genesis, 

 it is clear that the colour of domestic animals was at that 

 early period attended to. Savages now sometimes cross 

 their dogs with wild canine animals, to improve the 

 breed, and they formerly did so, as is attested by passages 

 in Pliny. The savages in South Africa match their 

 draught cattle by colour, as do some of the Esquimaux 

 their teams of dogs. Livingstone shows how much good 

 domestic breeds are valued by the negroes of the in- 

 terior of Africa who have not associated with Europeans. 

 Some of these facts do not show actual selection, but 

 they show that the breeding of domestic animals was 

 carefully attended to in ancient times, and is now 

 attended to by the lowest savages. It would, indeed, 

 have been a strange fact, had attention not been paid to 

 breeding, for the inheritance of good and bad qualities is 

 so obvious. 



At the present time, eminent breeders try by me- 

 thodical selection, with a distinct object in view, to make 

 a new strain or sub-breed, superior to anything existing 

 in the country. But, for our purpose, a kind of Selec- 

 tion, which may be called Unconscious, and which results 

 from every one trying to possess and breed from the best 

 individual animals, is more important. Thus, a man 

 who intends keeping pointers naturally tries to get as 

 good dogs as he can, and afterwards breeds from his own 

 best dogs, but he has no wish or expectation of per- 

 manently altering the breed. Nevertheless I cannot 



