SUS SCROFA. 



large and with strong hoofs, the two exterior ones much shorter 

 and not touching the earth. Muzzle truncated and terminated 

 by a snout) elongated, cartilaginous. Body covered with bris- 

 tles. Teats twelve. 



THE SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Sus SCROFA. Tusks strong, triangular, directed laterally. 

 No protuberance under the eyes. Color blackish-gray in the 

 wild animal, but varying much in the domesticated races. 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



The HOG has been generally described as a creature of gross 

 habits and unclean tastes, as having the senses of touch and 

 taste obtuse, and even as being so insensible that mice may 

 burrow in his skin without his seeming to feel it. But these 

 opinions are most unjust and incorrect. Far from being un- 

 clean, nature has furnished him with powerful organs of di- 

 gestion, enabling him to derive sustenance from a variety of 

 substances, and his voracity is only the result of the extent 

 and perfection of his digestive and respiratory organs. Al- 

 though one of the pachydermatous or thick-skinned animals, 

 the hog feels blows acutely, and manifests his sufferings by 

 loud cries. Indeed, the inference that his sense of touch is 

 dull, because of the thick layer of fat with which his body is 

 enveloped, is most erroneous, for it is well known that the plex- 

 us of nerves which gives sensibility to the body is exterior to 

 this fatty layer. So far from being insensible to pain, the hog 

 even suffers under the irritation arising from the punctures of 

 gnats, mosquitos, and other small insects, and endeavors to 

 protect himself from their persecution by rolling in moist 

 places and covering himself with mud. 



The hog is subject to remarkable changes of form arid 

 characters, according to the situations in which he is placed. 

 When these characters assume a certain degree of permanence, 

 a breed or variety is formed, and there is none of the domes- 

 tic animals which more easily receives the characters we desire 

 to impress upon it. This arises from its rapid powers of in- 

 crease, and the constancy with which the characters of the par- 

 ents are reproduced in the progeny. There is no kind of live 

 stock that can be so easily improved by the breeder, and so 

 quickly rendered suited to the purposes required : and the 

 same characters of external form indicate in the hog a dispo- 



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