Excerpts...
"For BUFFON, dogs "have par excellence all the interior qualities which can attract the regard of Man". This is indeed the basis of cynology in the purest sense of the word, the attraction which dogs hold for Man. As for the outside of the dog, it is clearly set out in the first sentence of the chapter: the size, the shape, the freedom of a dog’s movements are all dog-fanciers’ main concerns. The dog is unique as a species, but its shape, its temperament and its "natural talents" can vary considerably. There is a "variety of breeds which is so vast that we cannot even begin to count them". These differences can be noted concerning the "size, the figure (shape) of the body, the length of the muzzle, the shape of the head, the length and the dimension of the ears and the tail, the quality and the quantity of the hair", and the colour. All of this would be enough to enable the first standards to be set down.
"DAUBENTON (1716-1800 Louis Jean-Marie d'AUBENTON) worked in partnership with BUFFON and was destined to have a brilliant future. He would later be appointed to the chair of general zoology at the Collège de France. He set down the principle without which dog fancy would not exist: "several very distinct breeds" and one species. By crossing two breeds of dog together, he showed that it was possible to obtain a mongrel, and by crossing mongrels, that a "double mongrel" would be obtained until eventually a new breed would be produced. Little did he know that two centuries later, we would thus manage to obtain 350 breeds. As an anatomist, he specified that dogs, "all look the same on the inside concerning the soft parts" and differ regarding the skeleton ("by their bones") and the external shape of the body. In this way, the "distinct features of each breed" can be identified. This is the modern expression at the base of every classification, whether it be anatomical or linguistic."
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