52 M. F. Cuvier on the Dmnesticatioji 



discovers Ahe domestic individuals, and approaches them. The 

 masters of the latter, who are at hand, run up, and confine the 

 strange elephant with ropes, being protected by those which 

 belong to them, and which, on the smallest resistance from the 

 new comer, strike it with their proboscis or tusks, and compel it 

 to submit to be led away. 



The chastisements inflicted by the domestic individuals upon 

 the wild individuals, joined to the good treatment which he re- 

 ceives, soon complete his captivity, or, in other words, soon 

 bring about the period when his will conforms itself to his new 

 situation, when his wants are in accordance with the commands 

 of his master, and when he submits to the various labours allot- 

 ted to him, and which habit soon renders easy ; for it is said 

 that a few months only are required to transform a wild ele- 

 phant into a domestic one. 



So long as animals are, to a certain degree, susceptible of af- 

 fection and fear, — so long as they can attach themselves to 

 those who treat them well, and dread those who punish them, 

 it is sufficient to develope in them these feelings, in order to 

 weaken those which might be opposed to them, and to give ano- 

 ther direction to their will. This is what we have obtained by 

 the application of means, which now form the subject of our in- 

 quiries and observations. But it happens, either from the na- 

 ture of individuals, or from the nature of species, that the en- 

 ergy of certain propensities acquires such power that no other 

 feeling can overcome it, and under the empire of which no other 

 feeling can ever arise. For such animals, neither good treat- 

 ment nor correction will suffice, neither the one nor the other 

 would operate effectually ; they would even be nothing else 

 than new causes of exercise to the will, and, in place of weaken- 

 ing, they would exalt it. It is therefore indispensably neces- 

 sary, with respect to animals which experience so imperious a 

 desire of independence, to commence with immediately acting 

 upon their will, to deaden their rage, in order to render them 

 capable of fear or gratitude ; and, for this purpose, the happy 

 idea was suggested of submitting them to a forced state of watch- 

 fulness or to castration. 



According to all accounts, it appears, that the first of these 

 means, namely, a forced state of watchfulness, is of all the modifi- 



