ADAPTATION TO CLIMATE. 671 



and other authors ; and two important acclimatizations that of 

 the merino sheep by Daubenton, and the introduction of the 

 potato to general use by Parmentier were made or brought to 

 completion in the eighteenth century, but these were isolated cir- 

 cumstances. The systematic, methodical, deliberate thought of 

 looking out in behalf of any country for animals and plants that 

 might be of profit to it, and of making a study of their value and 

 of the means of making them at home in their new abode, was 

 originally conceived by Isidor Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. His studies 

 were first directed to this point in 1829, after which they con- 

 stantly held the most prominent place in his mind. He founded 

 the Society of Acclimatation, for propagating this idea and giv- 

 ing it practical force, in 1854 ; and five years later, in 1859, in co- 

 operation with that society, he created the zoological Jardin 

 d' Acclimatation for the purpose of applying the idea to new spe- 

 cies, and of studying the conditions under which they could be 

 best made to thrive. 



We may divide the history of acclimatation into two peri- 

 ods : one immensely long, beginning with the first domestications 

 of animals and the first migrations of men a period of practice 

 without science, which was nevertheless fruitful ; and the other, 

 which is as yet only a half-century long, of scientific acclimata- 

 tion. We may also consider the subject with a view to its utility, 

 and to the results that have been achieved in it and the encour- 

 agement it offers for the future. 



To the first period we owe nearly all our domestic animals and 

 cultivated plants. If we inquire into the origin of our domestic 

 animals, we shall find that twelve of them came from Asia, two 

 from Africa, and three from America, while five are European. If 

 we only had what Europe has furnished us, our list would be re- 

 duced to the pigeon, duck, goose, rabbit, and bees. Our farmsteads 

 would then be only modest poultry-yards, and our fields would not 

 be cultivated. It is true that we should not have much occasion 

 to cultivate anything, if we had to leave off from our list of plants 

 all that are not native to Europe. We should be reduced to an 

 unpleasant state indeed if we only had to give up the last im- 

 ported plant, the potato. 



The first importations date from an age long before historic 

 times, and can be determined only from archaeological research. 

 The first human inhabitants of Europe, the palaeolithic men, 

 had no domestic animals, and depended for their livelihood 

 solely on the natural products of the soil and the fruits of the 

 chase. Centuries after them came the neolithic men, of another 

 race a pastoral people, bringing witli them certain domes- 

 tic animals. Our knowledge of the kind of life these races 

 lived is only of the vaguest character. But the knowledge of 



