28 CHARLES R. STOCKARD 



Arthur Keith ('28), the present writer, and several other 

 workers, hereditary modification in the qualities of endocrine 

 secretions has played an important role in the evolution of 

 the types and races among domestic mammals, including man. 



The Primitive or Wild Ancestral Dog Type 



What was the ancestral or wild primitive type or types of 

 dog from which the modern breeds have been derived? This 

 question deserves serious attention in connection with our 

 present considerations. 



The literature regarding the wild origin of the domesti- 

 cated dog presents a great diversity of opinion. This results 

 from two facts. In the first place, it is commonly agreed by 

 Studer ('01, '05), Breuil ('12), Elliot ('25), Osborn ('15), 

 Allen ('20), and others that the dog was the earliest animal 

 domesticated by man. This taming of the dog occurred in 

 distant prehistoric times. The early savage man and the wild 

 dog joined in a hunting combination that was of peculiar 

 advantage to both, and in offensive and defensive battles 

 the tool-using hand of man and the powerful jaws of the 

 dog with its tearing teeth were more than a single species 

 adversary could successfully overcome. In time the man and 

 his dog became masters of the forest. Possibly this was the 

 beginning of the impounding or domestication by man of a 

 lower animal species, and in those early stages of the process 

 the mutual benefits which accrued to each from this associa- 

 tion would dignify it as a true example of commensalism. 

 In this connection it is difficult to resist propounding the idea 

 that the wild dog may have initiated the association with 

 man rather than that man first domesticated the dog. In 

 other words, may not the dog have primarily domesticated 

 man, and from this association may not man have become 

 aware of the possibility of furthering such associations and 

 the usefulness of other animals? The dog is instinctively 

 more inclined to cling to man than is man to the dog. No 

 other domestic animal exhibits the dog's deep attachment 



