Thus, Mr. Low in his
great work on the _Domesticated Animals of Great Britain_, says: "If we
shall breed a pair of dogs from the same litter, and unite again the
offspring of this pair, we shall produce at once a feeble race of
creatures; and the process being repeated for one or two generations
more, the family will die out, or be incapable of propagating their
race. A gentleman of Scotland made the experiment on a large scale with
certain foxhounds, and he found that the race actually became monstrous
and perished utterly." The same writer tells us that hogs have been made
the subject of similar experiments: "After a few generations the victims
manifest the change induced in the system. They become of diminished
size; the bristles are changed into hairs; the limbs become feeble and
short; the litters diminish in frequency, and in the number of the young
produced; the mother becomes unable to nourish them, and, if the
experiment be carried as far as the case will allow, the feeble, and
frequently monstrous offspring, will be incapable of being reared up,
and the miserable race will utterly perish.
Pages:
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303