94 INTRODUCTION. 



Society, in February 1837, are correct, the vertebrae 

 of the back, loins, and sacrum differ, between the wild 

 boar, the English and Chinese pigs, from fifteen to 

 fourteen, from six to four, and from five to four. 

 Even the French and English differ ; so that taking 

 the totals of vertebrae, they run fifty, fifty-five, 

 forty-nine, and the French fifty-three. Surely it is 

 allowing too much to the semi-domestication of such 

 animals, and denying the same to the plastic powers 

 of creation, to prop up our artificial maxims in zoo- 

 logy. On the contrary, we may justly suspect this 

 to be a case of providential arrangement for a given 

 purpose, and that there are three if not four original 

 species (including the African) with powers to com- 

 mix. In the wild boar of India, the hair of the tail 

 is bristly and sagittated ; in the species of Europe, 

 it is a scanty coarse tuft, as well as in the wild 

 breed of Jamaica. 



With regard to the general osteology of the Ca- 

 nince^ Cuvier admits that the bones of the wolf, the 

 matin, and shepherd dogs, are not disting-uishable. 

 Now, where the whole anatomical character in all 

 the species of the genus that are well known is so 

 similar, we may with safety infer the constancy of 

 that similarity in those but little known ; and, more- 

 over, presume the conditions of life, generation, 

 gestation, blindness, growth, maturity, longevity, 

 and diseases, to correspond in the natural relation 

 that must subsist between them. This being the 

 case, we are reduced to admit, either that, excepting 



