1880 DOGS AND THEIR HISTORY 275 



like other low organisms, are independent of brains, and 

 only wriggle the more, the more they are smitten on the 

 place where the brains ought to be- I don't know B., 

 but I am convinced that A. has nothing but a spinal 

 cord, devoid of any cerebral development. Would Mr. 

 Cross give him up for purposes of experiment ? Lingen 

 and you might perhaps be got to join in a memorial to 

 that effect. Ever yours very faithfully, 



T. H. HUXLEY. 



A fresh chapter of research, the results of which 

 he now began to give to the public, was the history 

 of the Dog. On April 6 and 13 he lectured at the 

 Royal Institution "On Dogs and the Problems con- 

 nected with them " their relation to other animals, 

 and the problem of the origin of the domestic dog, 

 and the dog-like animals in general. As so often 

 before, these lectures were the outcome of the careful 

 preparation of a course of instruction for his students. 

 The dog had been selected as one of the types of 

 mammalian structure upon which laboratory work 

 was to be done. Huxley's own dissections had led 

 him on to a complete survey of the genus, both wild 

 and domestic. As he writes to Darwin on May 10 : 



I wish it were not such a long story that I could tell 

 you all about the dogs. They will make out such a case 

 for " Darwinismus " as never was. From the South 

 American dogs at the bottom (G. vetulus, cancrivorus, etc.) 

 to the wolves at the top, there is a regular gradual pro- 

 gression, the range of variation of each "species" over- 

 lapping the ranges of those below and above. Moreover, 

 as to the domestic dogs, I think I can prove that the 

 small dogs are modified jackals, and the big dogs ditto 



