82 INTRODUCTION. 



admitted the wolf and the jackal to be constituents 

 of his genus Canis ; but it does not appear that he 

 entertained an opinion that his Canis famillaris^ or 

 domestic dog, was identical with either. Buffon 

 viewed the shepherd's dog of Europe as the original 

 species from whence all the others had sprung, and 

 in prosecuting his investigation, drew up a kind of 

 genealogical table, showing how the varieties were 

 derived by means of changes of climate, food, and 

 education, and multiplied by crossing the races so 

 produced to form all the others. 



There is both truth and ingenuity in these opi- 

 nions of the eloquent writer ; but it must neverthe- 

 less be confessed, that his inferences being in a great 

 measure fanciful and arbitrary, they should not have 

 been permitted to exercise such an influence upon 

 subsequent systematic writers, as evidently pervades 

 their classifications, even though they have rejected 

 his theory. 



Baron Cuvier, in his Begne Animal^ considering 

 the species to be distinct, remarks that " taming 

 the dog is the most complete, the most useful, and 

 the most singular conquest man has achieved, the 

 whole species having become our property.** 



Since that time Mr Hodgson, residing in a public 

 capacity at Katmandoo, near that central region of 

 the world where many of our most ancient elements 

 of social existence seem to have emanated; where 



totle, Calisthenes, Xenophon, Pliny, Oppian, Gratius, Pollux, 

 &c., relative to Hybrid dogs, sprung from lions, tigers, thoes, 

 and foxes, will be examined in the sequel. 



