NATUEAL HISTOEY OF MAN. 491 



species. It is only indeed in certain instances that this pri- 

 mitive stock can be found amidst the varieties that have 

 been impressed upon it. The best evidence is often that of 

 reversion to the original form, where the artificial conditions 

 of domestication are altered or withdrawn. 



Selecting one instance in illustration, let it be the Dog ; 

 that singular animal, which Cicero well affirms to be created 

 for the especial uses of man. What is there in the diversities 

 of the human species comparable to those which this animal 

 exhibits in size, in the form of the muzzle and cranium, in 

 the colour, quality, and quantity of its covering, in the 

 sounds it utters, in its intelligence and habits of life ? What 

 more different in aspect than the bull-dog, the Newfoundland 

 dog, the Cuba dog, the pug-dog, and the greyhound? Yet 

 we canot reasonably doubt (the dog itself, whatever its race, 

 certainly does not doubt) the identity of the species. A 

 question still exists among naturalists whether we may con- 

 sider the wolf or jackall its original type. This point, 

 however, does in no way affect the general argument. What 

 concerns us here is the amount of variation of which the 

 species is capable, and the varieties actually produced by 

 nature or culture ; and very especially by the intimate con- 

 nection of the dog with the uses, habits, and affections of 

 man. These are the illustrations we seek for, and . they 

 are abundantly furnished. They indicate not merely the 

 changes which are brought about in the individual, but still 

 more remarkably those which are transmitted to offspring, 

 and become hereditary in its breeds. Going beyond this 

 again, we find proof in the history of the same animal (made 

 known to us even from mummies discovered in the tombs of 

 ancient Egypt), of there being a limit affixed to these devia- 

 tions from a primitive type. And we have further evidence 

 that where dogs are removed from the homes and influence 

 of man they lapse again into a wild state, assume a form and 



