22 Some Account of the 



This conclusion proceeds upon the notion, so in- 

 geniously defended by Mr. Zimmermann, that the 

 dog of the old world is merely the wolf reduced to a 

 state of domestication, and varied, both as to his ex- 

 ternal aspect, and as to his essential qualities or man- 

 ners, by the influence of climate and other physical 

 causes, during the term of some thousand years*. 

 This subject is worthy of some of our attention. I 

 regret, however, that, in this place, I can only touch 

 it in the most superficial manner. This I shall do 

 under the following seven heads. 



I. I may observe, in the first place, that it is by 

 no means probable, that the wolf is the sole parent 

 or original stock, from whence have proceeded all the 

 numerous varieties of animals which go under the 

 general appellation of dogs. I think it much more 

 probable, that these varieties are derived from several 

 different stocks, or sources, beside the wolf; such as 

 the jackal, the hyaena, different kinds of foxes, &.c. 

 &c. In their inquiries into the genealogical history 

 of the dog-kind, naturalists, by aiming at simplicity, 

 have only tended to involve the subject in confusion. 

 A comparative view of the internal structure of the 

 supposed parents of the dog-kind, and the dogs, has 

 been too much neglected. Some attention, however, 

 has been paid to this subject. Essential differences 

 between the structure of the wolf and the dogs (I 



* The whole of Mr. Zimmermann's inquiry into the origin, 8cc 

 of the dog-kind, is well worthy of the attention of the naturalist. 

 See Specimen, &c. sect. iii. p. 83 — 98. 



