Natural History. 371 



the anihial kingdom at large in as complete a series as may be 

 practicable, and at the fearae time point out the analogies between 

 the animals already domesticated, and those which are similar in 

 character upon which the first experiments were made. 



To promote these objects, 1st. A piece of ground should be 

 provided, with abundance of water, and variety of soil and 

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

 aviaries may be formed, and where such quadrupeds, birds, and 

 fishes, as are imported by the society, sliould be placed for 

 ascertaining their uses, their power of increase or improvement. 

 — 2dly, Sufficient accommodation for the Museum should be pro- 

 vided in the metropolis, with a suitable establishment, so con- 

 ducted as to admit of its extension, on additional means 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 mem- 

 bers, of course, will have free and constant access to the col- 

 lection and grounds, and might, at a reasonable price, be fur- 

 nished 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 efforts 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 civi- 

 lized 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 gene- 

 rations 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, lose the instinct 

 of locomotion, their offspring acquire new habits, and a breed, 

 fairly domesticated, is with difficulty brought back to its original 

 state. 



Should the society flourish and succeed, it will not only be 

 useful in common life, but would likewise promote the best and 

 most extensive objects * of the scientific history of animated 



♦ We owe the peacock and common fowl to the natives of India j 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 ainl carp, with some other fishes, were probably introduced by the 

 Monks. 



SB 2 



