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There is yet no doubt, but that food and climate operate considerable changes in the animal consti- tution, chiefly, perhaps, in respect of weight, co- lour, and temperament; but there are certain of nature’s land-marks, which can never be removed by any change of place or diet: a breed of short- horned neat cattle, will never become long-horned; polled cattle will never acquire horns, nor horned cattle become polled; the essential distinction be- tween the blood-horse, and the horse without blood, although their size and weight be nearly equal- ized, can never change; nor will a true-bred, lop- eared pig, ever become prick-eared, to the end of time. These are the pure dicta of experience, which every one may trace; and those infinite changes, varieties, and sub-varieties, which we daily witness, are the pure effects of a mixture of breeds and nothing else. Men are misled on this question, as on most others, by confining their researches to the superficies. By way of illustra- tion—attempts are made to introduce a variety into the animals of a district, this is, of course, begun upon a small scale; perhaps, after a while, that the novelty of the thing is over, the pursuit is dis- continued, and the new variety, being small in number, is soon blended, and the traces of it lost In the general mass:‘The loss is always attributed to the soil, which, in time, it is taken for granted, conyerts all animals into its own peculiar breed, instead of the real agent in the business, an insufh- cient quantity of the new variety, to complete the intended change. For example, Shropshire pro-

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