The New Zoological Institution. 287 



provided, with abundance of water, and rariety of soil and aspect, 

 where covers, thickets, lakes, extensive menageries, and aviaries, 

 maybe formed ; and where such Quadrupeds, Birds, and Fishes, as 

 are imported by the Society, should be placed, for ascertaining their 

 uses, their power of increase, or improvement. — 2dly. Sufficiertt 

 accommodation for the Museum should be provided in the Metro- 

 polis, with a suitable establishment, so conducted as to admit of 

 its extension on additional mean^ being afforded. 



" It is presumed that a number of persons would feel disposed 

 to encourage an institution of this kind ; it is therefore proposed 

 to make the annual subscription from each individual only two 

 pounds, and the admission fee three pounds. The members, of 

 course, will have free and constant access to the collection and 

 grounds, and might, at a reasonable price, be furnished with living 

 specimens, or the ova of Fishes and Birds. 



. " When it is considered how few amongst the immense variety 

 of animated beings, have been hitherto applied to the uses of man- 

 and that most of those which have been domesticated or subdued, 

 belong to the early periods of Society, and to the eiforts of savage 

 or uncultivated nations,* it is impossible not to hope for many 

 new, brilliant, and useful results in the same field, by the appli- 

 cation of the wealth, ingenuity, and varied resources of a civilized 

 people. 



" It is well known, that, with respect to most of the animal 

 tribes, domestication is a process which requires time, and that 

 the offspring of wild animals, raised in a domestic state, are 

 more easily tamed than their parents, and in a certain number of 

 generations the effect is made permanent, and connected with a 

 change, not merely in the habits, but even in the nature of the 

 animal. Even migration may be, in certain cases, prevented, and 

 the wildest animals supplied abundantly with food, may lose the 

 instinct of locomotion, and their offspring acquire new habits: 



* " We owe the Peacock and Common Fowl to the natives of India, most of 

 our races of Cattle, and Swans, Geese, Ducks, to the Aborigines of Europe ; 

 the Turkey to the natives of America; the Guinea Fowl to those of Africa. 

 The Pike and Carp, with some other Fishes, were probably introduced by the 



Monks." 



