442 REVIEW — BLAINE*S CANINE PATHOLOGY. 
effect to the work of Mr. Blaine, by re-arranging his matter, 
compressing his facts, with the addition of such improved clas- 
sification and method of treatment as the advanced state of 
veterinary science has enabled us to supply.” — Preface. 
Of “ re-arrangement” we have already said something ; we 
shall have more, however, about it to say hereafter. Of “ com- 
pressing facts” we are going now to give a specimen, the 
subject being that which has proved so attractive of theory and 
speculation among naturalists, viz. the special origin of the dog. 
Blaine, in his last edition, has written as follows : — 
“ The natural history of an animal is most satisfactorily com- 
menced by inquiries into its direct origin; and in this instance 
it would be peculiarly gratifying to trace the source from whence 
has been derived a race now so extensively diffused among us, 
and one that is become not more important by the value of its 
services, than interesting by its amiable and companionable qua- 
lities. But, unfortunately, we have to lament that around the 
descent of no quadruped does there hang so much obscurity as 
about that of the dog ; and however reason and analogy may 
lead us to conclude him an original animal, and however well 
convinced the majority may be that he is so, yet the subject is 
so beset with difficulties and contradictory appearances, that we 
cannot wonder at the doubts which exist in the minds of others 
on the subject. Some eminent naturalists have even doubted 
whether the dog be not wholly a factitious animal ; one not ac- 
knowledged by the great Architect of Nature, but altogether 
compounded from such spurious sources as the intermixture of 
various nearly-allied animals. Others have allowed him a more 
direct lineage, by confining his descent to one among those which 
compose the genus in which he is placed: thus, some have con- 
sidered his parentage derived from the wolf, and the comparison 
of the anatomy between these two animals presents an argument 
of some weight, and the more when, added to this, we take into 
the account that the gestation of the wolf is, like the canina, 
sixty-three days. The dingo has likewise been supposed a 
probable source from whence the dog originated, but, in my 
opinion, not a very likely one : some from the fox, others from 
the chacal or jackal ; and a few have regarded the hyena as his 
primogenitor. (See Mr. Bell on this subject, in his History of 
British Quadrupeds.) So infinitely varied are the scions of 
this great tree become, that among those who, like myself, 
would be glad to advocate his claim to originality of formation, 
yet we are constrained to admit the difficulty of concluding that 
all his varieties can have sprung from one root. It is not easy 
