OF THE CLASS MAMMALIA. 241 



the domesticated races are thus affected and altered. The 

 dog, for example, so varied by domestication, may yet have 

 sprung from a single race, neither a wolf nor a jackall, but a 

 dog analogous to the common shepherd's dog, or wolf-dog, as 

 it is sometimes called. 



The power by which this complete subjugation of a race of 

 animals is effected, seems to be the inspiring them with con- 

 fidence, by kind acts and uniformly good treatment. We 

 must show them that the supply of food depends on us ; and 

 if to that we add food of a choice character, artificial wants 

 are thus created, which the animal feels man alone can 

 gratify. Hence his attachment to him;* finally, some are 

 extremely fond of being noticed and made much of. 



Confidence and dependence on man being once established, 

 fear may afterwards be superadded ; but this must be done 

 with great caution, lest it excite terror and disgust. 



But all mammals do not thus readily lay aside their savage 

 disposition, being either less confiding or less sensible to acts 

 of kindness, or it may be that their intellect is lower; but 

 be this as it may, it is evident that any animal, to become 

 completely domesticated, must be disposed to it by the 

 instinct of sociability. No solitary mammal ever becomes 

 completely domesticated, however readily he may be tamed.f 

 Sociability is an essential of complete domesticity, man be- 

 coming, as it were, the head of the troupe. A disposition to 

 domesticity may be considered as the extreme development 

 of the instinct of sociability. J 



408. Let us now consider the moral and physical influ- 

 ences which domesticity exercises over the domestic races of 

 animals ; how, in fact, it produces new varieties. 



The physiological law of hereditary resemblances holds 

 true in all animals, man included ; the young resemble their 

 parents in conformation, physical and mental qualities, and 

 even in respect of disease itself. But all the individuals of a 

 race do not possess in the same degree the same qualities, 

 moral and physical ; and hence arises the possibility of giving 

 to certain qualities a higher and more constant development. 

 Within certain limits, then, man may modify races, by regu- 

 lating the succession of generations, selecting a type or 



* It is chiefly by means of sugar and other delicacies that horses and deer 

 are taught those extraordinary tricks exhibited in the circus. 



t The cat may seem an exception to this view, but in fact the cat is never 

 completely domesticated. 



J The theory of domestication is one of extreme difficulty. R. K. 



