FROM SAVAGE TO CIVILIZED LIFE. 195 



themselves. Though many places are indicated where the sheep, the goat, the 

 horse, are apparently in a wild state, yet, for reasons to be mentioned afterwards, 

 the probable explanation of the fact is, that these apparently wild races have taken 

 their origin from stragglers from the herds introduced by man.* It is well known 

 that, in some cases, this has happened, as in South America, where the horses, 

 from domesticated sources, have increased to a great extent; and the horned 

 cattle, sent to the Llanos by CHRISTOVAL RODEIGUEZ about the year 1548, no less so : 

 And if, in such circumstances, and in so short time comparatively, these animals 

 have established themselves, and become in many respects wild animals, is it not 

 a fair conclusion, that the domesticated species now found wild along the tracks 

 of human migration, and nowhere else, may have become so from the same cause ? 

 And this conclusion is supported by the fact, contrary to all analogies of other 

 wild animals, that when these reputed wild races are taken, even in adult age, 

 they are speedily reclaimed, and become again the associates of man.f 



In 1825, M. F. CUVIEE published two Essays, one on the Sociability of Ani- 

 mals, | the other entitled an "Essay on the Domestication of Mammiferous Ani- 

 mals ;"f the opinions expressed in which derive weight, not only from the cha- 

 racter of the author, but from the opportunities he enjoyed of studying the habits 

 of animals. This celebrated naturalist ascribes the domestication of animals as 

 owing to what he terms an instinct of sociability, a social instinct in the creatures 

 themselves, accompanied with qualities to aid its influence. " To attain an ob- 

 ject," says he, " it is necessary to know it ; and how could the first men who asso- 

 ciated themselves with animals have known this object ? And had they conceived 

 it hypothetically, would not their patience have been exhausted in vain efforts, 

 from the innumerable attempts they would have had to make, and the great num- 

 ber of generations on which they would have to act, in order, after all, to arrive 

 only at superficial results." || So far M. CUVIER writes with the caution of a phi- 

 losopher. He afterwards goes on to state, as the result of all his knowledge and 

 all the experiments that had been made in the taming of animals, that no con- 

 ceivable training, without a particular disposition in the animals to attach them- 

 selves to man, could have ever effected this object. 



With regard to the effects of the social instinct of gregarious animals as in- 

 ducing them more easily to come under the protection of man, if the effect of this 

 social instinct were to render all gregarious animals of equally easy acquisition, I 



* " The natural state of the horse, it may be said, is not that of freedom, but of domestication." 

 (Illustrations of the Breeds of Domestic Animals in the British Islands, No. vi. p. 6. By DAVID Low, 

 Esq. F.R.S.E.) 



t DESMAREST, Mammalogie, 422. 



\ De la Sociabilite des Animaux, Mem. du Mus. xiii. 1. " It is difficult to conceive how they could 

 commence and maintain the submission of animals without this disposition to sociability, if we consider, 

 above all, at what time of human civilization the domestic animals appear to have become so." (P. 19.) 

 Memoires du Museum, xiii. 406. U Ibid. 



