310 M. Cuvier on the Domestication 



cause we have confined ourselves to describing the actions which 

 then accidentally presented themselves, that this important 

 branch of natural history has hitherto only been enriched by 

 isolated facts, which have often appeared to be without mutual 

 accordance, because no bond united them, and because no prin- 

 ciple directed the observer in his inquiries ; for no principle 

 could be deduced from these hypotheses, which originated in 

 the desire of explaining the cause of the actions of brutes, in 

 order to harmonise them with the idea which was formed of the 

 cause of the actions of man. These hypotheses, not having any 

 foundation in nature, could only mislead those who rested upon 

 them. Pure empiricism would have been preferable. Unfor- 

 tunately the narrow circle in which empiricism was confined, 

 became an almost insurmountable obstacle to the further pro- 

 gress of the science ; on the contrary, no sooner were animals 

 in a state of captivity subjected to rational observation, than the 

 branch of natural history which investigates the actions of ani- 

 mals and their causes, rose to the rank of a science by the gene- 

 ral truths with which it was enriched. 



For a long time it was admitted, that the moral perfection of 

 man depended upon the perfection of his organs ; and if this er- 

 ror at length yielded to evidence, it was yet cherished in full 

 force with reference to animals. Those who had the most deli- 

 cate senses, the most pliant limbs, and most favourable to mo- 

 tion, were necessarily the most intelligent ; and the monkeys and 

 carnivora seemed to confirm this rule. But the possession 

 of several seals, that is to say mammifera whose limbs are con- 

 verted into fins, which are destitute of external ears, whose eyes, 

 formed for a liquid medium, can only see inlperfectly in the 

 air, whose nostrils open only when the animal inspires, and 

 whose body clothed with a thick layer of fat has, so to speak, 

 no sense of touch excepting at the points where the moustaches 

 are affixed, has demonstrated, by means of actions artificially 

 provoked, that the extent of intellect is no more proportional to 

 the perfection of the organs in animals than in man. And this 

 truth has given rise to the idea that the most accurate know- 

 ledge of the organic parts of animals can afford no satisfactory 

 information regarding their nature and their relations to other 

 beings, if we are ignorant of the cause which animates and 



