The number of breeds and sub-breeds of the dog is great; Youatt for
instance, describes twelve kinds of greyhounds. I will not attempt
to enumerate or describe the varieties, for we cannot discriminate
how much of their difference is due to variation, and how much to
descent from different aboriginal stocks. But it may be worth while
briefly to mention some points. Commencing with the skull, Cuvier
has admitted[54] that in form the differences are “plus fortes que
celles d’aucunes espèces sauvages d’un même genre naturel.” The
proportions of the different bones; the curvature of the lower jaw,
the position of the condyles with respect to the plane of the teeth
(on which F. Cuvier founded his classification), and in mastiffs
the shape of its posterior branch; the shape of the zygomatic arch,
and of the temporal fossae; the position of the occiput—all vary
considerably.[55] The difference in size between the brains of dogs
belonging to large and small breeds “is something prodigious.”
“Some dogs’ brains are high and rounded, while others are low,
long, and narrow in front.” In the latter, “the olfactory lobes are
visible for about half their extent, when the brain is seen from
above, but they are wholly concealed by the hemispheres in other
breeds.”[56] The dog has properly six pairs of molar teeth in the
upper jaw, and seven in the lower; but several naturalists have
seen not rarely an additional pair in the upper jaw;[57] and
Professor Gervais says that there are dogs “qui ont sept paires de
dents supérieures et huit inférieures.” De Blainville[58] has given
full particulars on the frequency of these deviations in the number
of the teeth, and has shown that it is not always the same tooth
which is supernumerary. In short-muzzled races, according to H.
Müller,[59] the molar teeth stand obliquely, whilst in long-muzzled
races they are placed longitudinally, with open spaces between
them. The naked, so-called Egyptian or Turkish dog is extremely
deficient in its teeth,[60] —sometimes having none except one molar
on each side; but this, though characteristic of the breed, must be
considered as a monstrosity. M. Girard,[61] who seems to have
attended closely to the subject, says that the period of the
appearance of the permanent teeth differs in different dogs, being
earlier in large dogs; thus the mastiff assumes its adult teeth in
four or five months, whilst in the spaniel the period is sometimes
more than seven or eight months. On the other hand small dogs are
mature, and the females have arrived at the best age for breeding,
when one year old, whereas large dogs “are still in their puppyhood
at this time, and take fully twice as long to develop their
proportions.”[62]
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