rous periods of English
history choice animals were often imported, and laws were passed to
prevent their exportation: the destruction of horses under a certain
size was ordered, and this may be compared to the "roguing" of plants
by nurserymen. The principle of selection I find distinctly given in an
ancient Chinese encyclopaedia. Explicit rules are laid down by some of
the Roman classical writers. From passages in Genesis, it is clear that
the colour of domestic animals was at that early period attended to.
Savages now sometimes cross their dogs with wild canine animals, to
improve the breed, and they formerly did so, as is attested by passages
in Pliny. The savages in South Africa match their draught cattle by
colour, as do some of the Esquimaux their teams of dogs. Livingstone
states that good domestic breeds are highly valued by the negroes in the
interior of Africa who have not associated with Europeans. Some of these
facts do not show actual selection, but they show that the breeding of
domestic animals was carefully attended to in ancient times, and is now
attended to by the lowest savages. It would, indeed, have been a strange
fact, had attention not been paid to breeding, for the inheritance of
good and bad qualities is so obvious.

UNCONSCIOUS SELECTION.

At the present time, eminent breeders try by methodical selection, with
a distinct object in view, to make a new strain or sub-breed, superior
to anything of the kind in the country. But, for our purpose, a form of
selection, which may be called unconscious, and which results from every
one trying to possess and breed from the best individual animals, is
more important. Thus, a man who intends keeping pointers naturally tries
to get as good dogs as he can, and afterwards breeds from his own best
dogs, but he has no wish or expectation of permanently altering the
breed. Nevertheless we may infer that this process, continued during
centuries, would improve and modify any breed, in the same way as
Bakewell, Collins, etc., by this very same process, only carried on more
methodically, did greatly modify, even during their lifetimes, the forms
and qualities of their cattle. Slow and insensible changes of this kind
could never be recognised unless actual measurements or careful drawings
of the breeds in question have been made long ago, which may serve for
comparison. In some cases, however, unchanged, or but little changed,
individuals of the same breed exist in