NATURAL HISTORY. 165 



attributed to the hardness and dryness of the skin, 

 which is certainly harder than in the greatest part of 

 other quadrupeds. He is much less sensible than the 

 horse to the whip and the sting of the flies. 



At two years and a half old, the first middle incisive 

 teeth fall out, and afterwards the other incisive at the 

 side of the first fall also, and are renewed at the same 

 time and in the same order as those of the horse. The 

 age of the ass is also known by his teeth. The third 

 incisive on each side ascertains it, as in the horse. 



The ass is three or four years in growing, and lives 

 twenty-five or thirty years. He sleeps less than the 

 horse, and does not lie down to sleep, except when 

 quite tired. 



Thsre are among asses different races, as among 

 horses ; but they are much less known, because they 

 have not been reared with the same attention ; but 

 we cannot doubt that they came all originally from 

 warm climates. Aristotle assures us, that there were 

 none in his time in Scythia, nor in the other neigh- 

 bouring countries, nor even in Gaul, which, he says, 

 is a cold c'.imate. He adds too, that a cold climate, 

 either prevents them from procreating their species, or 

 makes them to degenerate ; and that this last circum- 

 stance is the reason that they are small and weak in 

 lllyria, Thrace, and Epirus. They appear to have 

 come originally from Arabia, and to have passed from 

 Arabia into Egypt, from Egypt into Greece, from 

 Greece into Italy, from Italy into France, and after- 

 wards into Germany, England, and lastly into Sweden, 

 &c. for they are, in fact, weak and small in propor- 

 tion to the coldness of the climate. 



The Latins, after the 'Greeks, have called the wild 

 ass, angra ; which animal must not be confounded, us 



