4 INTRODUCTION. 



ing as much as possible their natural instincts, that 

 the subjugation and domestication of the most useful 

 species has been accomplished. It is still a discussed 

 point among philosophers whether man has the 

 power of modifying the nature of a species to such 

 an extent that it loses its natural or essential charac- 

 teristics. 



However much the enthusiastic naturalist may 

 admire the poetic doctrines of Lamarck, Etienne 

 Geoffroy St. Hilaire, and Darwin, he must not com- 

 pletely throw aside Cuvier's more severe doctrine 

 of the Fixity of Species. Both are true to a certain 

 extent, but both have been exaggerated. 



Domestic animals, like certain useful plants, have 

 certainly undergone marked changes. No one 

 doubts our power of creating new races or varieties 

 in the animal world, with almost as much ease as in 

 the vegetable kingdom ; and these we can modify or 

 ameliorate according to our wants. These races or 

 varieties flourish even when the original animals 

 from whence they sprung have disappeared for ever ! 



Where is now to be found the original animal to 

 which we owe the ox, or the horse, or the camel, or 

 the dog ? The original types of these domestic 

 animals have disappeared from the face of the 

 globe. The cow in all probability originated in the 

 animal seen and described by Herberstein (Rerum 

 Moscovitarum Commentarii, etc., 1556) in the six- 



