Publisher's Synopsis
Book Excerpt: disparity is no greater than that betweenthe Shire horse and the Shetland pony, the Shorthorn and the Kerrycattle, or the Patagonian and the Pygmy; and all dog breeders knowhow easy it is to produce a variety in type and size by studiedselection.In order properly to understand this question it is necessary firstto consider the identity of structure in the wolf and the dog. Thisidentity of structure may best be studied in a comparison of theosseous system, or skeletons, of the two animals, which so closelyresemble each other that their transposition would not easily bedetected.The spine of the dog consists of seven vertebrae in the neck, thirteenin the back, seven in the loins, three sacral vertebrae, and twentyto twenty-two in the tail. In both the dog and the wolf there arethirteen pairs of ribs, nine true and four false. Each has forty-twoteeth. They both have five front and four hind toes, while outwardlythe common wolf has so much the appearance of a large, bare-boneddog, that a popRead More
