1310 



VARIETIES OF MANKIND. 



instance of friendly recognition towards him- 

 self and other persons, shown by a bitch wolf 

 at the Zoological Gardens ; and cites from 

 Mr. Fred. Cuvier a very remarkable instance 

 of affectionate and submissive attachment 

 shown by a young wolf towards the individual 

 by whom he had been brought up, in a degree 

 that scarcely seems inferior to that manifested 

 by the dog. " Now, if we find," he remarks, 

 " that the mere education of a young wolf, 

 taken from its parents in a wild state, could 

 so far change its natural disposition, and 

 render it so fond, so intelligent, and so grate- 

 ful as this, what may we not expect from the 

 successive transmission of improvement by 

 the culture and training of a whole race for 

 ages?" On the other hand, in those races 

 of dogs which have become emancipated from 

 human control, the psychical nature of the 

 wolf developes itself, in precise proportion to 

 the approach presented to its physical charac- 

 ters. And even in the most domesticated 

 breeds, instances of spontaneous reversion to 

 wild habits are occasionally to be met with. 

 " Thus," says Mr. BIyth, " I have known this 

 to occur in a male pointer and a female grey- 

 hound ; the latter was so fine a specimen of 

 the breed, that on being entrapped, it was 

 thought desirable to obtain a litter from her, 

 which was accordingly effected ; but while 

 her puppies were very young, she managed to 

 escape to the woods, and never returned ; 

 three of her progeny grew to be excellent 

 hounds, but two others proved quite irreclaim- 

 able, and escaping from servitude, like their 

 dam, were finally shot, for their destructive 

 poaching propensities."* 



Thus it appears that, even if we hesitate in 

 pronouncing in favour of the specific identity 

 of the dog and the wolf, there is, at any rate, 

 no valid ground for the establishment of a 

 specific distinction between them ; and if it 

 should prove that the hybrid offspring are fer- 

 tile amongst themselves, and that a vigorous 

 mixed race is the result, the probability of 

 their specific identity would be greatly in- 

 creased. The required proof, however, could 

 only be afforded by the actual production from 

 the wolf stock, of a race having the aptitude 

 for domestication, and capacity for variation, 

 exhibited by the dog. 



There is another mode of looking at the 

 question, however, which has been recently 

 suggested by Professor Agassiz.f This distin- 

 guished naturalist thinks it impossible to ac- 

 count for the geographical distribution and va- 

 rieties of conformation of many existing species 

 of animals, without having recourse to the idea 

 that, instead of all the individuals of that spe- 

 cies having descended from a single parentage, 

 or pair of ' protoplasts,' they are the offspring 

 of several distinct pairs of ' protoplasts,' first 

 introduced in different localities, all possessing 

 the same essential nature, but having that 

 nature modified in accordance with the spe- 



* Translation of Cuvier's Regne Animal, p. 90. 



t See his recent work on the Fishes of Lake Su- 

 perior ; also the Edinb. New Philos. Journ., April, 

 1850. 



cial conditions in which each was destined to 

 exist. From the definition of species, there- 

 fore, he would exclude the idea of identity of 

 descent, and would substitute that of 'similarity ; 

 but would still base his distinction of species, 

 as do other naturalists, on the constant trans- 

 mission of some well-marked peculiarity com- 

 mon to all the races, and would thus as- 

 sociate all those which obviously partake of 

 a common nature, and are disposed to free 

 intermixture, notwithstanding the non-iden- 

 tity of their parentage.* He would probably 

 accord with other naturalists, therefore, in 

 regarding the different breeds of dogs as va- 

 rieties of one species ; but would attribute the 

 origin of their several peculiarities in part to 

 the differences in their first parents, which 

 were not, however, sufficient to constitute 

 specific distinctions. Although there may be 

 cases in which such an hypothesis presents 

 the readiest solution of the difficulty, yet it 

 can scarcely be accepted as applicable to that 

 of the dog ; for we do not here find that the 

 races which most nearly approximate to the 

 wild state in different parts of the world, do 

 present any differences that enable us to re- 

 gard them as the respective ancestors of our 

 most diverse domesticated breeds. If, for 

 example, it could be shown that the Esqui- 

 maux dog peculiarly resembled the mastiff, 

 that the Indian dhole might be regarded as 

 the progenitor of the greyhound, that the 



* Of the hypothesis of the radiation of species 

 from several distinct centres, Prof. E. Forbes may 

 be regarded as the most conspicuous opponent. He 

 has laboured to show that the peculiarities in the 

 geographical distribution of existing species are 

 quite reconcilable with the idea of migration from 

 single centres, and that, generally speaking, they 

 necessarily lead to that idea ; whilst, on the other 

 hand, in those instances in which detached or out- 

 lying spots occur, remote from the principal area of 

 distribution, and from each other, he considers that 

 these represent the original extent of range, which 

 has been subsequently interrupted by geological 

 changes that have been fatal to the existence of the 

 species over the intermediate connecting areas, 

 as, by the substitution of water for land, or of land 

 for water ; by the elevation or depression of the sea- 

 bottom, in a degree incompatible with the continued 

 existence of the species if it be marine ; by similar 

 changes in the land, exerting a like influence on ter- 

 restrial species ; by alterations thus induced in the 

 course and connection of rivers and watercourses, 

 which have broken up the areas of fluviatile and la- 

 custrine species ; by changes of temperature conse- 

 quent upon remoter causes; and many other in- 

 fluences too numerous here to recount. He affirms 

 that, in so many cases, these peculiarities may be 

 thus explained by known geological changes, which 

 have occurred since the introduction of the species 

 in question (this being the case peculiarly with 

 those that existed in the glacial epoch, and then had 

 an extensive southern range, which is now only in- 

 dicated by their occurrence in outlying spots, the 

 principal area of the species being now restricted to 

 the circum-polar regions, in consequence of the more 

 elevated temperature of the parts beyond), that we 

 have fair ground for extending this view to all, and 

 for inferring the occurrence of geological changes, 

 subsequently to the first diffusion of particular 

 species, from the peculiarities of its existing distri- 

 bution. As yet, however, his views on this subject 

 have not been given to the world in any complete 

 form, save by oral discourses. 



