[17] Stonehenge, ‘The Dog,’ 1867, pp. 175-178.
[18] ‘The Art of Improving the Breed,’ etc., p. 13. With respect to Scotch deerhounds, see Scrope’s ‘Art of Deer Stalking,’ pp. 350-353.
[19] ‘Cottage Gardener,’ 1861, p. 327.
[20] Mr. Huth gives (‘The Marriage of Near Kin,’ 1875, p. 302) from the ‘Bulletin de l’Acad. R. de Méd. de Belgique’ (vol. ix., 1866, pp. 287, 305), several statements made by a M. Legrain with respect to crossing brother and sister rabbits for five or six successive generations with no consequent evil results. I was so much surprised at this account, and at M. Legrain’s invariable success in his experiments, that I wrote to a distinguished naturalist in Belgium to inquire whether M. Legrain was a trustworthy observer. In answer, I have heard that, as doubts were expressed about the authenticity of these experiments, a commission of inquiry was appointed, and that at a succeeding meeting of the Society (‘Bull. de l’Acad. R. de Méd. de Belgique,’ 1867, 3rd series, Tome 1, No. 1 to 5), Dr. Crocq reported “qu’il était matériellement impossible que M. Legrain ait fait les expériences qu’il annonce.” To this public accusation no satisfactory answer was made.
[21] Sidney’s edit. of ‘Youatt on the Pig,’ 1860, p. 30; p. 33 quotation from Mr. Druce; p. 29 on Lord Western’s case.
[22] ‘Journal of Royal Agricult. Soc. of England,’ 1846, vol. vii. p. 205.
[23] ‘Ueber Rindvieh,’ etc., s. 78. Col. Le Couteur, who has done so much for the agriculture of Jersey, writes to me that from possessing a fine breed of pigs he bred them very closely, twice pairing brothers and sisters, but nearly all the young had fits and died suddenly.
[24] Sidney on the Pig, p. 36. See also note p. 34. Also Richardson on the Pig, 1847, p. 26.
[25] Dr. Dally has published an excellent article (translated in the ‘Anthropolog. Review,’ May, 1864, p. 65), criticising all writers who have maintained that evil follows from consanguineous marriages. No doubt on this side of the question many advocates have injured their cause by inaccuracies: thus it has been stated (Devay, ‘Du Danger des Mariages,’ etc., 1862, p. 141) that the marriages of cousins have been prohibited by the legislature of Ohio; but I have been assured, in answer to inquiries made in the United States, that this statement is a mere fable.
[26] See his interesting work on the ‘Early History of Man,’ 1865, chap. x.