432 THE NATURAL niSTORT REYIEW. 



advance in tlie arts of civilized man are found in possession of 

 negro slaves. The Hindus have been ruled or domineered over by- 

 strangers for more than eight centuries, yet still consider themselves 

 the first of mankind ; and the Chinese can despise the Europeans, 

 heedless of the defeats and humiliations they have inflicted on 

 them. Not so the African negro, who after his emancipation looks 

 up and humbly imitates the master that once held him in slavery. 

 The free negroes of America and its islands exhibit the same 

 unenterprising, unambitious, and home-keeping character as those 

 of the parent country. Barbadoes is greatly over-peopled, and 

 Jamaica greatly under-peopled, but the higher wages of the latter 

 do not tempt the people of the former to emigrate. 



April 25, 1865. 



The first paper read was "On the Domestication of certain 

 Animals in England between the 7th and 11th Centuries." By 

 Mr. J. Thrupp. 



There are in animals three recognized and distinct degrees of 

 capacity for domestication. The first class are animals of a "domes- 

 ticated nature," being those which, when thoroughly domesticated, 

 continue habitually with man, will not willingly leave him, and if 

 they do so accidentally, will probably return ; among these are cows, 

 horses, sheep and poultry. The second are animals capable of only 

 an imperfect domestication. They breed freely in the homestead, and 

 are useful to man, but if they escape from him will probahly not 

 return ; among these are tamed deer, hawks, pheasants, and part- 

 ridges bred at home, and gold and silver fish in private waters. A 

 third class, which are sometimes called domesticated, such as hares, 

 canaries, rabbits, monkeys, parrots, &c., are altogether incapable of 

 domestication, for whatever an eccentric member of the species 

 might do, they will, as a rule, escape to savage life on the first 

 opportunity, unless coerced by climate or starvation. The author 

 ventured to repeat these very well-known distinctions because, in 

 ignorance of them, our ancestors made a series of experiments in 

 domestication, which were either failures or but partially successful, 

 and also because in those cases which succeeded the species were 

 always semi-domesticated (sometimes for centuries) before they 

 were completely so. 



The hog was the earliest animal domesticated. He became the 

 great staple of national food, and one of the most important ele- 



