B UFFON FULLER Q UO TA TIONS. 1 1 7 



they have design in stopping the mouths of their 

 habitations." * 



Does it not look as if Dr. Darwin had in his mind 

 the very passage of Buffon which I have been last 

 quoting? and is it likely that the facts which were 

 accepted by Dr. Darwin without question, or the con- 

 clusions which were obvious to him, were any less 

 accepted by or obvious to Buffon ? 



The Goat Hybridism. 



In his prefatory remarks upon the goat, Buffon com- 

 plains of the want of systematic and certified experi- 

 ment as to what breeds and species will be fertile 

 inter se, and with what results. The passage is too 

 long to quote, but is exceedingly good, and through- 

 out involves belief in a very considerable amount of 

 modification in the course of successive generations. I 

 may give the following as an example : 



" We do not know whether or no the zebra would 

 breed with the horse or ass whether the large-tailed 

 Barbary sheep would be fertile if crossed with our own 

 whether the chamois is not a wild goat ; and whether 

 it would not form an intermediate breed if crossed with 

 our domesticated goats; we do not know whether the 

 differences between apes are really specific, or whether 

 apes are not like dogs, one single species, of which there 

 are many different breeds. ... Our ignorance con- 

 cerning all these facts is almost inevitable, as the expe- 

 riments which would decide them require more time, 

 pains, and money than can be spared from the life and 



* Dr. Darwin, ' Zooiioinia,' vol. i. p. 186. 



