SECRETARY'S REPORT. 175 



by referring to the general similitude of the horse and the ass, the 

 zebra, the quagga, the onagga, the dziggatai, the two species of 

 camel, the two species of rhinoceros, the several species of the deer 

 kind, of monkeys, of sloths, and of lizards ; but none of these change 

 in those particulars which causes distinction between them, Avhereas 

 there exists realiablc and abundant authority to prove that the wool 

 and hair of sheep do change from either one to the other, under the 

 influences of climate and cultivation. 



Dr.* Nichols, in his " Catechism of Natural Theology," page 144, 

 says, " what art docs for man, nature has in many instances, done 

 for those animals which are incapable of art. The clothing of its 

 own accord changes with their necessities. This is particularly the 

 case with that large tribe of quadrupeds which are covered with 

 furs. Every dealer in hare skins and rabbit skins, knows, how the 

 fur is thickened by the approach of winter. It seems to bo a part 

 of the same constitution: and the same design, that wool, in hot coun- 

 tries, degenerates, as it is called, but in truth, (most happily for the 

 animal's ease,) passes into hair; whilst on the contrary, that hair, 

 in the dogs of the polar regions, is turned into wool, or something 

 very like it." 



Dr. Blacklock, in his " Treatise upon Sheep," p. 85, says, "in 

 tropical countries we find the fleece approaching more to hair than 

 wool, as in the sheep of Thibet, so celebrated for the silky nature of 

 their coat." 



In Saxton's edition of Youatt upon Sheep, p. 11, is the following: 

 "The change from .hair to wool, though much influenced by temper- 

 ature, has been chiefly effected by cultivation." 



Prof. Low, in his "Domestic Animals," p. 42, says, "By fre- 

 quent shearing of the fleece, the hair diminishes in quantity, and 

 the wool is proportionally developed, until at length, under the 

 influence of continued domestication, the essential covering of the 

 animal becomes wool, of greater or less tenuity and softness." 



Charles L. Fleischman, Esq., in the Patent Office Report of 1847, 

 p. 308, says, "The wool of the very same sheep, which ftfrnish in 

 Germany an eminently fine and valuable product, on their being 

 transplanted to other countries, can scarcely be recognized, and is 

 hardly worth half its former value." 



And D. J. Browne in the Patent Office Report for 1855, p. 2, 



