On Dwarfs and Giants* 147 



duce individual giants and dwarfs, or rather, if the type of the 

 species was not originally greater or smaller than the numerous 

 races of the average height which exist at this moment. Inhe- 

 ritance is here a datum of the problem now first mentioned, and 

 which renders the difficulty more complicated. 



The species of savage animals, subjected to the action of mo- 

 difying causes less numerous and powerful than those which af- 

 fect domestic animals, do not ordinarily present very distinct or 

 constant varieties in their sizes ; each species only forms a single 

 race, composed of individuals closely resembling each other. On 

 this subject, M. Geoffroy recapitulates the researches which he 

 has made into the general variations in the height of mammiferae 

 in a wild state. They have a reference to the medium in which 

 they live, the food which they eat, and the places which they in- 

 habit. The species which live in the bosom of the water reach a 

 greater height than those of the same family who are terrestrial ; 

 and those, in particular, who live in trees, and are adapted for 

 flight. Among the mammiferae who live on land and on trees, the 

 herbivorous are in general the largest ; then the carnivorous ; the 

 f rugivorous, who are[all of an ordinary size ; and the least are the 

 insectivorous. Throughout, we behold an admirable harmony 

 between the height, the size of these animals, and the food afford- 

 ed them by nature. Similar relations appear in the winged 

 mammiferae. To the marine mammiferous animals, the law does- 

 not hold good. As to those which dwell in inhabited places, 

 nature has on every|occasion proportioned the size of the locali- 

 ties which should receive them ; reserving the big species for 

 the seas, the large islands, and continents, and the small ones 

 for the rivers, lakes, and small islands. The greater part of the 

 large mammiferae inhabit the hottest countries ; others in smaller 

 numbers multiply in the cold regions ; but no family has its 

 large species in temperate climates. 



It is a fault that some authors have drawn inferences from 

 savage to domestic animals and man ; and reciprocally. So far as 

 height is concerned, domestic animals present many singular va- 

 riations, which most frequently belong to many individuals, are 

 transmitted in a regular manner, and being continued by means 

 of generation, serve to characterise the races. These variations 

 are often the more considerable, as the domesticity is the more 



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