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Dogs and All about Them
·
Robert Leighton
397
Inbreeding
is
the
reverse
of
outcrossing.
It
is
the
practice
of
mating
animals
closely
related
to
each
other,
and
it
is,
within
limits,
an
entirely
justifiable
means
of
preserving
and
intensifying
family
characteristics.
It
is
a
law
in
zoology
that
an
animal
cannot
transmit
a
quality
which
it
does
not
itself
innately
possess,
or
which
none
of
its
progenitors
has
ever
possessed.
By
mating
a
dog
and
a
bitch
of
the
same
family,
therefore,
you
concentrate
and
enhance
the
uniform
inheritable
qualities
into
one
line
instead
of
two,
and
you
reduce
the
number
of
possibly
heterogeneous
ancestors
by
exactly
a
half
right
back
to
the
very
beginning.
There
is
no
surer
way
of
maintaining
uniformity
of
type,
and
an
examination
of
the
extended
pedigree
of
almost
any
famous
dog
will
show
how
commonly
inbreeding
is
practised.
Inbreeding
is
certainly
advantageous
when
managed
with
judgment
and
discreet
selection,
but
it
has
its
disadvantages
also,
for
it
is
to
be
remembered
that
faults
and
blemishes
are
inherited
as
well
as
merits,
and
that
the
faults
have
a
way
of
asserting
themselves
with
annoying
persistency.
Furthermore,
breeding
between
animals
closely
allied
in
parentage
is
prone
to
lead
to
degeneracy,
physical
weakness,
and
mental
stupidity,
while
impotence
and
sterility
are
frequent
concomitants,
and
none
but
experienced
breeders
should
attempt
so
hazardous
an
experiment.
Observation
has
proved
that
the
union
of
father
with
daughter
and
mother
with
son
is
preferable
to
an
alliance
between
brother
and
sister.
Perhaps
the
best
union
is
that
between
cousins.
For
the
preservation
of
general
type,
however,
it
ought
to
be
sufficient
to
keep
to
one
strain
and
to
select
from
that
strain
members
who,
while
exhibiting
similar
characteristics,
are
not
actually
too
closely
allied
in
consanguinity.
To
move
perpetually
from
one
strain
to
another
is
only
to
court
an
undesirable
confusion
of
type.
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