Remarks on Hybrids. 201 



tion the veracity of Mr. Berry : but, as all mankind are liable 

 to be sometimes mistaken, I think it certainly no more than 

 right to publish my doubts of an occurrence which I con- 

 ceive to be wholly anomalous and unprecedented ; and I 

 much hope that Mr. Berry is prepared either to fortify his 

 assertion, or to admit that some possibility existed of his 

 being deceived by appearances. 



The above remarks must be understood only to apply 

 to the two classes of warm-blooded vertebrate animals ; for 

 out of these, I believe, no instance of a hybrid production in 

 the animal kingdom has ever yet been recorded, nor am I 

 aware that any experiments on the subject have ever been 

 instituted, except in these two classes. Between most ani- 

 mal and the majority of vegetable unions there is the fol- 

 lowing highly important distinction, the bearings of which, 

 in a state of nature, are worthy of close attention ; that, in 

 the former, the impregnation of one species by another can 

 never be brought about by mere chance, whereas in the 

 latter, such a commixture may be (and very often is) purely 

 fortuitous. Consequently, it is necessary to be a little 

 cautious how we attempt to draw analogies between the two 

 great divisions of organic nature, at least in the matter of 

 hybrids produced wild; for, with this grand distinction at 

 the outset, it is very possible for a rule to hold general in 

 the one kingdom, which may not always (as we are extremely 

 apt to suppose a priori) be equally applicable throughout 

 the other. How the fact may be with regard to those ani- 

 mals which (as fishes and batrachia) have no sexual union, 

 we have at present no data on which to found an opinion ; 

 but it seems barely possible that, as in the vegetable king- 

 dom, a mixed union may here in a state of nature take place 

 fortuitously, especially among the latter, though it would 

 require a certain concurrence of favourable circumstances, 

 the exact coincidence of which is very far indeed from being 

 ever probable. With the exceptions, however, of the golden 

 carp, the silk-moth, and perhaps the cochineal insect, I be- 

 lieve there is no instance whatever of an animal which may 

 be considered domesticated, which is not either a quadruped 

 or a bird; and, therefore, as no mule animals have ever been 

 known, except in the two latter classes, and as in these 

 their existence (in every duly authenticated instance) can 

 invariably be traced to the unnatural condition to which at 

 least one of the parents had been reduced by man, we may 

 pretty safely (as above) come to the general conclusion, that 

 all animal hybrids whatever (though perhaps not all vege- 

 table) are directly or indirectly referable to human agency. 

 Tooting, Dec. 17. 1834. 



