552 
Translations and Eeviews of Continental 
Veterinary Journals. 
By W. Ernes, M.R.C.V.S., London. 
Annales cle Medecine Veterinaire . 
The Agricultural Institute of the State has received ten 
pairs of leporides from M. Roux, the President of the Comice 
Agricole of Charente. The Minister of the Interior and Agri¬ 
culture proposes to send them into some of the provinces of 
Belgium in order to propagate them. These leporides have 
been obtained by M. Roux by copulation of the hare with a 
rabbit in a state of domesticity. The leporides, which have 
been introduced into Belgium, are three parts hare and one 
part rabbit; they have, according to M. Roux, the fecundity 
of the rabbit, while in size and taste of the flesh they partake 
more of the hare. M. Guzot, sometime ago, gave the history 
of the leporides in the Journal d'Agriculture de Paris; he 
observes that an eminent physiologist, M. Paul Broca, has 
given the name of leporide to the progeny of the hare and 
the rabbit—two distinct species, and enemies to each other— 
which no one would ever have thought of confounding with 
one another, their instincts or habits being different, or even 
opposed. In studying this new animal the learned professor 
has sought onlvfor the proof of the unlimited and continued 
fecundity of these hybrides or metes; the agriculturist and 
breeder will interest themselves more in studying the advan¬ 
tages in a practical point exclusively. The usefulness of a 
breed, whatever that breed may be, is, in fact, the foundation 
of its value, and forms the only claim it has of being classed 
among those which agriculture undertakes to produce and 
improve. The qualities of the leporide, the profits to be 
realised by its propagation and rearing, are the only reasons 
which would assign them a place among the small domestic 
animals of our farm-yards. The mule is reared on account 
of its peculiar aptitude for certain services which could not 
be so well performed by either the horse or the ass; the 
leporide will be propagated for similar reasons, when it 
has been ascertained that he posesses these advantageous 
qualities which do not appertain to either the hare or the 
rabbit. On the same grounds the chabin—a cross between 
the he-goat and the sheep—has been produced solely for 
