78 M. Charier on the Domeslkalio7i of 



those which would undergo the greatest modifications from our 

 good treatment, and which would perform, with most facility, 

 what we mi^ht require of them. 



The glires, that is to say the beavers, marmots, squirrels, 

 hares, &c. seem only to be endowed with the faculty of feel- 

 ing, so little activity has their intellect. The animal of this 

 tribe, to which we have done most good, does not distinguish 

 us individually, and shows no moro satisfaction at our presence 

 than at the sight of any other person. 



If we pass to the tapirs, the peccaris, the daman, the zebras, 

 &c. in a word to the pachidermanta and solipcda, we find ani- 

 mals living in herds, which pain may inspire with fear, and 

 good treatment render grateful, which distinguish their masters, 

 and sometimes form very strong attachments to them. 



A similar effect takes place, to a certain degree, with the ru- 

 minantia, but principally the females, for the males, without 

 any exception I believe, have a brutality which bad treatment 

 increases, and which good treatment does not soften. 



Were our action upon animals limited in individuals, were it 

 necessary for us, at each generation, to recommence the samo 

 labour, in order to associate them with us, we should not have 

 had, properly speaking, domestic animals. The modifications 

 which, fortunately, we have made those animals undergo, which 

 we have first reduced to domesticity, have not been lost with 

 respect to those which have been produced by them. 



It is a fact universally recognized, that the young of animals 

 have a very strong resemblance to the individuals which have 

 given life to them. The distinctive qualities of animals of the 

 same species, those which have most influence over their par- 

 ticular existence, which constitute their individuality, arc those 

 which have been developed by exercise, and whose exercise has 

 been called forth by the circumstances amid which these ani- 

 mals have lived. Hence it follows, that the qualities trans- 

 missible by animals to their young, those which give rise to a 

 mutual resemblance in them, are of a nature to arise from 

 fortuitous circumstances; and, consequently, that we are 

 enabled to modify animals and their progeny, or their race, 

 within the limits which bound our power to produce the cir- 

 cumstances calculated to act upon them. 



It is by this means that we are enabled to preserve the races 

 in their purity, or to obtain by their mixture races having new 

 qualities, intermediate between those which have been united. 



It will not, however, be useless to remark, that the most 

 domestic races, those which are most attached to man, are 

 those which have experienced on his part the action of the 



