The Express.
London, England, 1853-10-25 00:00:00

Pever Hospital. The his:ury of this family
lis most instructive; they are very respectable
people, with all the comforts of life es to food,
clothing, &c. the rooms are quite clean, neat and
well furnished ; but thus living 7 feet 4 inches below
' the surface of the street and in very low uud small
: rooms, they have been most sickly. Tilt y have lived
here tivo {'cars, not from choice, but because having
a large family and there being great demand fur
ytiati.6_,Yea(l)hine case of death from Cho-
house accommodation, they could nut obtain upper
1 rooms ; landlords, in these casts, objecting to teceive
them as tenants. la the ficievdexclatrrilneegtuiftellvietehrie.afacnhti:dernedn
I have had the measles and hooping cough ; six have
Niinxioi;Llltittafihian‘as.e°lk Prison is reported by Dr. Bily,
alni :soar
hdwa
iliiii‘ifLm.oni
Lnuangtrill.iii-eocsp of
Hoo UNlON.—October 22: Death, diunicen, 1.
_.. cured on the 22nd inst.

NEWCASTLE.—October 22: Cholera, 3. October
23: Cholera, 1. The total number of death frpur
cholera and diurrhcea in Newcastle, dining the pm-
sent outbreak, has been 1,428. In the same period
(viz., the first a days) during the prevalence of
epidemic cholera in 1331.32, the number of deaths
was 294.

GATEMIIEAD.—October 21: Death, cholen, 1.
October 22 : Diarrhoea, 1; Gateshead (Ifeworth),
cholera, 3. This makes the 493rd death from cho-
lera, and 42 from diarrhoea (from the Ist September,
to the 21st October, both inclusive). Total, 535.
MORPETII (BEI/LINUTUN), Ocr. 22.—Two very
severe cases of cholera at Barrington Colliery have
occurred here this day, " both of them likely to prove
fatal," according to the r..port of Mr. :McLaren, sur-
geon, Becilington. The Morpeth Local Board of
Health have issued notice to the inhabitants of Bed-
lington that before NVednesday they require that
1" all refuse, ashes, night soil, and stagnant water
shall be carefully ren.oved from the premises where
they exist ; and that all hollows now used for cess-
pools, middensteads, or receptacles for night suit,
shall be completely tilled up with clay or earth to a
level with the surtaec of the adjoining ground, and
covered with some hard material. On that day a
dust-box will be sent to every house, in which the
occupiers must place all ashes, refuse, and night soil
before 9 o'clock every morning, when the boxes will
be called for, emptied into and taken away by a cart.
These requirements will be rigidly enforced; but as
their object is the preservation of human life, the
Local Board hope the inhabitants of Bedling:on will
cheerfully observe them."

ON FIXITY OF TYPE IN SHEET.
--...--

(prom the )lind, .ferietinveist.)
It is certainly in the power of a breeder to alter
the character of any particular breed. This alteration can
be produced by careful selection of both sire and dam—
either of these alone, still more when combined—especially
along with a change iu feeding. The character as regards
early maturity, size, colour, with weight and quality of
fleece, can be changed, but only within prescribed limits.
Any breed can be permanently improved by breeding from
selected animals. The improved Leicester and Southdown
arc familiar examples. But there is uo evidence that ever
a short-woolled breed has been permanently changed into a
long-woolled. To effect a change so decided as this, re-
course must be had to crossinet, and it is to crossing, we be-
, Have, all the improved breeds owe their distinctive charac-
ters. It is a point still undecided by physiologists, whether
or ant crossing tends to improve the constitution of the
progeny. Many maintain that by crossing increased vigour
and vitality are acquired by all animals; others as stoutly
assert that the tendency is, that all crossbred animals
deteriorate and become ultimately eatinct. Upon this
point we do not enter ; our object is to call attention to a
very interesting article in the Journal of Agriculture,
translated from the Fiend) by Mr. Putty, on "Obtaining
immediate fixity of type in forming a new breed of sheep."
Many of our readers may be aware that nearly all the
breeds of sheep in France have been improved by sheep
originally imported—the chief of these are the Merino
(short-wooled), from Spain, ;did the Leicester (long-wooled)
from England. The latter is a more modern introduetim

.. -
than tbiNerino, but is probably destined to exercise a
much inure decided tuduenck in altering the character of Ina
native breeds, as the demand tor a bried calculated to pro-
duce mutton as well us wool is every year becoming greuttr.
Consequmtly, the Merino, with naturally a light carcase,

is not suited to produce mutton in the greatest quantity,
and in the shortest possible perit4:-the chiet recommeula-

lions of the Leicester sheep. 1111 the French farmer
ri cognises, however, the importance of prolucing a supply
of succulent food during bow summer and winter, it is vain
to expect that thy pure Leicester will become permanently
established in France, es the prevailing breed. Whether
the more hardy Southdown or the vigorous Cutswold
would be better adapted to leek management, it is needless
for us to spJeutate.
It is perhaps necessary here to mention that the cul-
tivation of clover and pasture grasses, with turnip or
manifold, is little practised in France—consequentiy,
duriug the arid SUIT.Illt.f beet, and the extreme coal of
their winters. sheep not housed hese to undergo ;peat
privations. Te provide against this, and from the want
of fences, sheep are usually housed, but are generally fed
upon straw alone. This is so foreign to the habits of our
English breeds that they do not continue to thrive, which
may be looked upon as one of the necessary results of
such a violent change in feeding.
One of the results cf this spare diet Is a diminution of
size, even in the improved crosses, which the writer deems
an dvantage, ex the weight preferred in France is 141 b.
per qr., smaller than any of our native breeds, the Welsh
excepted.
Our native black-faced sheep are, we believe, about to be
tried upon mountain pastures in France, and very possibly
they will acquire there a permanent footine on bleak and
exposed hills. The writer of the article referred to has,
apparently far years, been experimenting with crossing
different native breeds. de has found that, wherever the
native ewe was of a distinct and original breed, crossing
with a pure English ram, new Kent, the blood of the
French race preponderates; while selecting native ewes
sprung from a mixture of two distinct races, the type of the
k.nglish wail decided and prominent; and in continuing to
breed from these cross-bred sheep, the preduce closely re-
sembled the sire. Such, he rates, is the origin of the La
Chammoise breed of sheep. This breed appears to have
retained the hardiness of the pure French breed, while the
other cross, between the new Kent and the pure French
sheep, possesses none of the hardiness of their darns and
granddams.
The experiments made by M. Mxibringle Nouel peerless
peculiar features, earl are entitled to a high place in con-
nexion with the solution of the phystriergical questions bear-
ing upon crossing, particularly in relatiou to permanency of
character. Two thousand ewes of mixed blood, weighing
alive only about 56 pounds, served by new Kent rams,
weighing above 2001 b., all produced live lambs with one
exception, and the young animals preserved the beauty of
form or the English breeds and maintained their condition
without extra food. The next year experiments with the
same ewes and tops were equally successful. 'the third
veer the ewe lambs, the result of the first experiment, pro-
duced offspring more level in appearance than even the
offspring of some native flocks. For some years the ex-
perimenter has had a double lot of lambs—one, the first

cross with mixed blood, anther from rams and ewe:, the
result of that cross. The fixity of type appears now to be
fully established, and, as showing their superiority, animals
from this flock usually take prises wherever they are exhi-
bited in France.
We presume that these experiments have been un-
dertaken and conducted at the expense of the
French government. In this country we have ano-
ther, and, upon the whole, a better system, of
leaving such experiments to private enterprise. If
it .were not so, most probably our domestic breeds of
animals would never have ()trained the present high cha-
racter as breeds. There is ample room for (nether improve
meut, however, in most, if not in all out breeds of sheep.
There is not one breed which does not possess some pecu-
lierity which gives a value to that breed, while in connexion
with these qualities are defects more or less serious, and
which Operate against their more general extension. lt,
for instance, the Leimter pOESCFSeII the hardiness of con-
stitution, with the quality of mutton, of the Southdown
and Cheviot, it would be an invaluable breed. lf, again,
these two latter breeds bad the extreme hardiness and
vigour of constitution of the black-laced, they would must
probably not only supersede the blade-faced breed,
hut in part--if not iu whole—supersede the Leicester.
It becomes a problem, difficult of scansion we admit,
whether or not such a character could be perma-
nently tiled in the Leicester, Southdown, or Cheviot. We
edam we despair of the improved Lemma ever being
brought, by a cross or °the Milk., to equal the Southdown or
Cheviot in quality of mutton. But there can belittle doubt
that the buuthdown, Cheviot, and black faced are all
capable of much improvement, so as to bring them nearer
the Leicester,. net only by selection and fee..ing, but also
by crossing with other breeds, mast probably the Leicester.
Fur instance, a cross between a black•factel ewe and
Southdown rata produces sheep in appearance much allied
to the black-faced ; possibly from this cross a new breed of
sheep could be produced to rival
hardy
breeds.
Both breeds possess great vigour of constitution with a
restless temperament, which makes them adapted for
ranging over upland or mountainous pasture producing
herbage in scanty amount and frequently containing little
nutriment.
The Southdown (of which there are erveral varieties) is
at present the favourite Intel for crossing in nearly all the
English counties, and generally the produce is superior
even where the top or ewe is a Leicester or Cotswold. One
feature, however, which we have obsetved in ail these
crosses from the Southdown ram is a remarkable absence
of uniformity of type, scarcely two sheep in the flock re-
sembling each other. The favourite cross in Scotland is
a cities botwivt the Leicester tap and Cheviot ewe. This
MSS gives a very narked unitormity of type ; the pro-
duce, when kept to two years old, is frequently larger than
pure Leimater, the mutton being great.), superior to the
Leicester, and the woo: u. more value than either the pure
Leicester or Cheviot. The crass be twren the Cheviot and
black-faced has never become a favourite ; indeed, this cross
appears to be anything but an improvement upon either
breed—a cross between the Leicester and black-feed ewe