by the Study of the Domestic Jnimals. 189 



tion of the several problems embraced in the natural history of 

 man are, first, the direct comparison of the characters of the 

 races ; and, secondly, the comparison of their languages, cus- 

 toms, traditions, of their monuments of every kind, and the cir- 

 cumstances of their habitat. Without doubt these are so many 

 excellent sources of information, all of which have already 

 contributed to enrich the science with numerous and interesting 

 results, and which still promise to yield an ample harvest. 



But however valuable these elements may be, they are not al- 

 ways adequate to the solution of the difficult and complex ques- 

 tions which occur in anthropology. When they alone are em- 

 ployed, it too frequently happens that even the best directed 

 efforts only supply a glimpse, a mere indication, rather than a 

 demonstration of the important result ; or even that they 

 completely fail before the as yet insurmountable difficulties. 

 And if this be the case, should we not seek in the consi- 

 deration of facts which have hitherto been neglected, and in 

 their application to the yet unsolved problems, the means of in- 

 troducing new elements into the discussion, thereby to obtain 

 new instruments for arriving at a satisfactory determination. 



These new elements and new methods of solution I have 

 found, by applying to the history of man different facts, some 

 of which are little known, but the majority of which are familiar 

 and almost trivial, drawn from the history of the domestic ani- 

 mals. It is not, then, by anthropological facts that I now pro- 

 ceed to illustrate anthropology, but by considerations borrowed 

 from a collateral branch of science ; thus substituting for the 

 usual methods, or rather bringing to their help, a method 

 which it must be allowed is less direct, and whose employment, 

 from that circumstance alone, might appear more difficult. But 

 this inference is of no great moment, if it be found that the me- 

 thod happily leads to our object, and if we can thus sometimes 

 succeed in arriving by a circuitous route, at a result which we 

 cannot reach by the more direct course. 



It may besides be supposed by many, that the variations of 

 the domestic animals, and those of the human race, have be- 

 twixt them only such distant and indirect connections as a first 

 superficial examination might suggest. This is far, however, 



