REVIEWS. 
733 
much more extended than that of the female, the possession 
of such a distinct descent or pedigree is especially essential. 
“ The careful breeder will ever he on the watch for de- 
sirable characters, which, by the law of variation, crop up 
among his animals, and, by care and selection, may be moulded 
to useful purposes. 
“ The parents when paired must be healthy and vigorous, 
neither too old nor too young. They may be of the same 
strain of blood or of the same family, but they must not be 
too nearly related. A single ‘ nick in,’ as breeders of fowls 
term it — a single union, that is, between blood relations, may 
occasionally be admissible to fix any very desirable qualities 
possessed by the parents ; but such close alliances cannot be 
often repeated without reducing the size, vigour, and useful- 
ness of the stock. Alike in the vegetable and animal king- 
doms, nature distinctly indicates that races shall not be 
perpetuated by parents too closely related to each other. As 
we change our seed wheat, potatoes, and flowers, so also, 
and for like reasons, must we change occasionally our bulls, 
rams, and boars. 
“ Whilst both parents between them mould the future off- 
spring, it is satisfactorily established that the male particu- 
larly confers external form, impressing his good and bad 
points, especially on the organs of locomotion — the bones 
and the muscles. The female, on the other hand, gives es- 
pecially the internal organs, with the habits, dispositions, 
and diseases, which thence result. The importance of using 
only well-descended sires is thus rationally explained. Most 
great men are said to have had remarkable mothers, and so 
according to this law it should be, for the organisation of the 
brain, like the temper, constitution, and other such qualities of 
the internal organs, descends more especially from the mother. 
“ Other laws possibly, however, occasionally intervene to 
modify the results of this law. Thus there is good reason for 
believing that the most vigorous, active, and best bred parent 
usually exercises rather more than its own share on the de- 
velopment of the progeny, and is more prominently repro- 
duced than its weaker and worse-bred partner. 
“ Between the two parents there ought to be a certain 
amount of likeness. Very uncertain results follow the union 
of a very large horse and a pony ; a cart horse and a thorough- 
bred mare ; a greyhound and a bull-dog. These unions were 
obviously never intended, and when very dissimilar animals 
are mated, such an unnatural and artificial union is seldom 
happy or successful. 
“ Another occasional cause of disappointment in the breed- 
XL1V. 51 
