60 Mr F. Guvier on Mammiferous Animals. 



And this difference between the dog and the ox would still ne- 

 cessarily be increased by the difference of fecundity of these two 

 species. In fact, the dog, in an equal time, submits to our in- 

 fluence a much greater number of generations than the ox. We 

 are ignorant what dispositions the dog originally had to become 

 attached to man and to serve him, and upon which consequently 

 man might have acted to bring him to the degree of submission to 

 which he has arrived ; but there is every reason to believe that 

 they were numerous ; and with the promptitude with which the 

 elephant becomes domestic, it is extremely probable that if our in- 

 fluence could be exercised over a certain numberof its generations, 

 it would become, like the dog, one of the most submissive and 

 affectionate of our animals, inasmuch as all the means adapted 

 for rendering animals domestic are calculated to modify it. 

 Unfortunately no pains have been taken in attempting to make 

 it breed ; and, in the countries where its services have become 

 necessary, the natives have contented themselves with taming 

 individuals. This transmission of individual modifications by 

 generation does not, however, aflbrd a basis to domestication, 

 although it is indispensable to it. It is a general phenomenon 

 which has been observed in the wildest animals, as in those that 

 have been most subjected to our will. Let us inquire, there- 

 fore, now that we know the animals which are associated with 

 us, what is the disposition common to some and foreign to others, 

 which might be regarded as essential to domesticity ; for with- 

 out a particular disposition, which would second our efforts and 

 prevent our empire over animals from being merely accidental 

 and transitory, it is impossible to conceive how we should have 

 succeeded. 



{To he concluded in next number.) 



On a new Chjrogonite^ or Fossil Capside of the genus Chara, 

 occurring very abundantly in the fresh-water Limestones of 

 the neighbourhood of Paris. By M. Constant Prevost. 



X. HE author commences with a historical account of the Gy- 

 rogonites, in which he relates all that has been said regarding 

 these small bodies, which are now generally considered as fossil 

 seeds of the genus Chara. In Forfarshire, the analogous fossil 



