292 Dr. J.E. Gray on the Acchimatization of Animals. 
general use, I cannot consider them as at all acclimatized. They 
have almost always had the protection of warmed buildings, espe- 
cially in the winter; and though they may have lived through a 
certain number of years, they are liable to attacks of diseases de- 
pendent upon our climate, and generally die off before their natural 
term of existence is completed. I can only regard them as partially 
domesticated, and that only as objects of curiosity and luxury, and 
as incapable of being turned, in this country at least, to any useful 
domestic purpose. 
With regard to those animals which may be considered as more or 
less completely under the control of Man, there exists considerable 
difference in the nature of their domestication. 
The more typical among them, or truly domesticated, such as the 
Oxen, the Sheep, the Horse, the Camel, the Dog, and the Cat, like 
the Wheat and the Maize among plants, are never found truly wild; 
and when they are permitted to run wild, as in the case of horses 
and oxen in South America, they are easily brought back to a 
state of domestication, especially if caught young. What may be 
called the semidomesticated or domesticable animals, such as the 
Buffalo, the Goat, the Pig, the Rabbit, the Reindeer, the Yak, and 
some other Asiatic cattle, are found both in the tame and the wild 
state, and often in the same region and in close proximity to 
each other. The Asiatic Elephant, and a few other animals which 
can be made tractable under man’s direction, never (or very rarely) 
breed in domestication ; and all the individuals of these very use- 
ful races are caught wild and brought into subjection by traming. 
The African Elephant is evidently equally amenable to man’s 
control, and was equally domesticated by the Romans ; but the ne- 
groes do not seem to appreciate the advantages which they might 
derive from its domestication, and only make use of its tractable dis- 
position to keep it im captivity until such time as its ivory is best 
fitted for the market, when, also they, can feed upon its flesh. 
All our domestic or semi-domestic animals have their proper home 
in the temperate regions of Europe and Asia. They all, except the 
Ass, bear great cold better than excessive heat ; and even the Ass 
suffers greatly on the coasts of the tropics. The Sheep, in the warmer 
regions, require to be driven to the cool mountains during the hot 
season. In the tropics they lose their wool, and, like the long-haired 
goats and dogs, change the character of their fur. The inhabitants 
of the arctic region or subarctic regions of Europe and Asia have 
partially domesticated the Reindeer. 
Either Asiatics have a peculiar aptitude for domesticating animals, 
or the Ruminants of that part of the world are peculiarly adapted for 
domestication. In the mountain regions of Tibet and Siberia the 
Yak has been domesticated, and, like the Reindeer of the arctic 
regions, it is used as a beast of burthen as well as for milk and food. 
The steppes of Asia are the home of the Camel and the Dromedary. 
In the lower and warmer regions of central and southern Asia the 
Zebu has been completely domesticated ; and the natives of India 
aud of the islands of the Malayan archipelago have brought into a 
