A NEW LORD OF THE WORLD 



57 



him universally with a mind-destroying microbe, would 

 become a beautiful, healthy, silly creature, dying at first 

 by millions annually, and at last represented by a 

 hundred thousand unvarying specimens, inhabiting the 

 warm but healthy corners of the earth, aimlessly happy, 

 free from disease, neither increasing nor decreasing in 

 number. It is legitimate, and is a means of examining 

 the whole problem of man's history, to inquire whether 

 we have reason or not to suppose that, were intelligent 

 man thus removed arbitrarily and completely from the 

 scene, a new " lord of the world " would arise, by 

 normal evolutionary process. A bird, an elephant, a 

 rat, might give rise to the new line of progressive 

 development, and, unchecked by man, once jealous and 

 repressive, but now down-fallen, this new stock might 

 acquire such brains and wits as we men now boast of, 

 and people the earth. You never can tell ! But it is 

 not the business of science to expatiate on such possi- 

 bilities. 



The domesticated cattle of Europe are of very 

 ancient prehistoric origin. They are for convenience 

 called "Bos taurus," and seem to be derived from the 

 huge Bos primigenius or Aurochs, the Urus of Caesar, 

 which was wild in Central Europe in his time, and from 

 the Indian Bos indicus which is represented by the 

 Indian and African native breeds of " humped " cattle. 

 It is, however, very difficult to trace most of man's 

 domesticated animals or his cultivated plants to their 

 original wild forms and original habitation. At the 

 Cattle Show we only see British and Irish breeds, and 

 only those cattle bred as meat-makers the Highland, 

 the Welsh, the Shorthorns, the polled Angus, the South 

 Devons, the Hereford, the Sussex, the Galloway, the 

 Dexter. But there are other British breeds famous for 

 their milk-producing quality, such as the Guernseys and 

 Jerseys, whilst in Hungary, Italy, and Spain they have 

 magnificent breeds of great size, and often with truly 



