76 M. Cuvier oh the Domestication of 



varied to avoid the effect of uniformity, but especially in ren- 

 dering hunger urgent, by withholding food ; and among the 

 observations to which these different modes of procedure give 

 rise, there is one which it will not be without interest to dwell 

 upon for a moment, although it does not result exclusively 

 from the particular case which we examine, but presents itself 

 under a variety of other circumstances. 



Whatever experience these animals may have of the noise 

 from which they suffer, they are never able to refer the cause, 

 either to the instrument which produces it, or to the person 

 ■who employs this instrument. They suffer passively, as if they 

 experienced an internal disease ; the cause, like the seat of 

 their uneasiness, is in themselves, and yet they very correctly 

 discern the direction of the noise. The moment they are struck 

 by a sound, their head and ears are directed, without the 

 slightest hesitation, toward the point from which it proceeds : 

 there are even animals in which this action is instinctive, and 

 precedes all experience; and with regard to the sensations, I 

 might add, that the bull acts upon seeing a red ray, as he 

 ■would under the impulse of blows. The cause of the modifi- 

 cations which he experiences, is in both cases entirely external : 

 ■which shews us farther, that if the horse and the bull do not 

 refer the sound to the instrument which produces it, it is less 

 on account of the distance which separates them from the in- 

 strument, than on account of the peculiar nature of the sensa- 

 tions of hearing. 



It is therefore by wants, over which we arc ablo to exercise 

 some influence, which it depends upon us to direct, to develop, 

 or to destroy, that we are enabled to tame, and even entirely 

 captivate animals ; and, from the small number of them of 

 ■which we have hitherto taken advantage, we may be allowed 

 to think, that, in practice, we have not yet exhausted this 

 source of the means of seduction, — and that others might be 

 brought to our aid, should new species be rendered domestic, 

 or new services to be demanded of those which already are so, 

 enforce the necessity of searching them out, and induce us to 

 make the attempt. 



Hitherto I have only considered the general effects which the 

 various means described above, produce upon domesticated 

 animals. It will not be useless to cast a glance over those 

 which they produce in wild animals; for the comparison that 

 ■will result, will perhaps assist us in eliciting the first elements 

 of domestication. 



The monkeys, that it to say, the quadrumana of the old 

 world, which, to the highest degree of intellect in animals, 

 unite the organization most favorable to the developement of 



