GEORGE PERKINS MARSH. 453 



Other military purposes," wLich culminated in an appropriation of 

 money to this end. 



Mr. Marsh's handling of this subject shows the spirit in which he 

 studied all subjects. His work never was that of a dilettante. By ori- 

 o-inai investiiiatious he would form clear and strong convictions, which 

 he would then carefully compare with the opinions of other observers, 

 never failing to reach substantial practical conclusions. Of this trea- 

 tise on the Camel he says, " I claim no merit but that of fidelity in 

 presenting the conclusions at which I have arrived." " I have in- 

 tended," he adds, " to take a purely practical view of my subject, and 

 I have, therefore, sought to condense into the limits I have prescribed 

 to myself the greatest possible amount of information, and to fortify 

 my statements by the most reliable authorities." A rapid survey of 

 this book will show how well the author carried out his purpose. 



In a brief introductory chapter he reminds us that the Creator com- 

 manded man to subdue the earth, and invested him with dominion 

 over all terrestrial creatures. Man has, as yet, fulfilled but a part of 

 this proud destiny. Of all the vegetable and animal products of the 

 globe at least, comparatively few have been subdued to human use, 

 still fewer permanently domesticated in our fields and our households. 

 The proper savage only asks of inorganic Nature the gifts which she 

 spontaneously offers him. But even in the very dawn of social life, 

 man demands of the organic world, uot merely the usufruct of its spon- 

 taneous productions, but the complete appropriation and domestication 

 of many species of both plants and animals. "We accordingly owe to 

 our primeval, untutored ancestors the discovery, the domestication, and 

 the acclimatization of our cereal grains, our edible roots, and our im- 

 proved fruits, as well as the subjugation of our domestic animals, while 

 civilized man has directed his efforts under the Creator's commission 

 almost exclusively to the conquest of the inorganic creation, and has 

 scarcely reclaimed a plant of spontaneous growth, or added a newly 

 tamed animal to the flocks and herds of the pastoral ages. 



Many of the domesticated families of the organic world are pecu- 

 liarly suited to the uses of man as a migratory animal, and are appar- 

 ently almost exempted from subjection to climatic laws, and accordingly 

 follow him in all his wanderings. Others seem to be inexorably con- 

 fined within prescribed geographical bounds. Others, again, though 

 comparatively independent of climate and of soil, are nevertheless 

 specially fitted to certain conditions of surface, and to certain modes 

 of human life, to the maintenance of which they are themselves 

 indispensable. 



