The choice of a mate.

  • Anthony Ludovici
Date:
[1935]
Catalogue details
    96/546 page 66
    Most of these facts were known to Darwin, and one or two have actually been taken from him. And what do experienced breeders do ? Here the evidence conclusively points to the best results being obtained from the closest inbreeding. But, just as in Nature, natural selection eliminates individuals which are the outcome of two polluted streams becoming confluent in consanguineous unions, so the wise breeder, who imitates Natures way, carefully weeds out unhappy specimens and carries on his inbreeding with constant selection. For as we have seen, if morbid or deleterious factors still exist in a stock’s germ-plasm, and they come together from both parents in incestuous breeding, then, instead of a confluence of two pure streams, leading to enhanced health, beauty and vigour, a confluence of impure streams occurs, which, of course, results in a stream doubly contaminated. It is, however, remarkable that, owing to the ethico-theological superstition against inbreeding and incest, bad and ignorant breeders have until recently always ascribed to close inbreeding per se, and not to the pollution of the confluent streams, the bad results of their methods—so much so, indeed, that not only Darwin, who consulted many such ignorant breeders, but also countless other authorities, take it for granted that inbreeding in itself must be bad, particularly as it was forbidden by the table of affinities. Settegast in 1868 in Germany took an even stronger stand than Darwin against inbreeding, with the result, as Kronacher shows, that for several decades nobody ever accomplished anything notable in the breeding of cattle or horses in Germany. 1 And it was only when Dr. de Chapeaurouge reversed Settegast’s theo logical prejudices that Germany began once again to produce reputable strains of animals. Paying no heed to the theorists, however, knowledgeable breeders all over the world have from time immemorial always practised inbreeding, accompanied by careful selection. “ One of the stock arguments used against inbreeding,” says C. A. House, “ is that under its influence stamina deteriorates. It is not so ; nowhere is stamina required more than in the Homing Pigeon, and in no branch of the Fancy is in-breeding more practically and closely followed than in dealing with homing pigeons.” 2 1 Op. cit., pp. 1-2. 2 Inbreeding (London, 1920, p. 6). 66
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