DOMESTICATION AERESTED ! 341 



Among the large herbivorous mammalia is it enough to 

 possess only four alimentary species? In the middle of 

 the nineteenth century, and surrounded by the marvels 

 daily springing up in mechanics, physics, and chemistry, 

 we have come to this that the poor still want meat, 

 and that the richest can only vary the meals on their 

 table by varying the preparation of always the same 

 meats; among the large animals, the flesh of the ox, the 

 sheep, and the pig, the milk of the cow, the goat, and 

 the sheep. This is all! With such facts, can we sup- 

 pose that our civilisation is at every point advanced as 

 far as possible ? In regard to our alimentation, can we 

 reckon ourselves as advanced as in regard to our means 

 of transport and correspondence? Have we done for 

 our health what we have done for our industry? Sin- 

 gular contradiction! which we do not observe because 

 habit renders us familiar with it, but which will some 

 day excite astonishment as the most inexplicable of 

 anomalies. Almost in everything else, progress so rapid 

 that what was yesterday now seems separated from us 

 by ages; and, in this fundamental matter of which we 

 treat, progress so slow, or rather such non-progression, 

 that in regard to the number of our butcher-meat species 

 we are where were the Komans, the Greeks, the ancient 

 Egyptians, and, to sum up everything, where the Chinese 

 themselves long have been!" 



It is not easy to account for the arrest which has 

 been so long laid on the domestication and naturalisa- 

 tion of animals. Bearing in mind the fact that ani- 

 mals of warm climates bear transportation to colder 

 regions better than the animals of cold climates endure 

 removal to those which are warmer, it is astonishing 

 that nations inhabiting the temperate quarters of the 

 globe have had so little desire to acquire the useful 

 animals abounding in warmer latitudes. This can hardly 

 be owing to the difficulty of transport, and the conse- 

 quent expense, which is, no doubt, considerable. Sup- 

 pose that we were destitute of the horse or the ox; it is 



