160 EXPERIMENTAL EVOLUTION LECT. 



food by prehistoric man, yet we cannot tell exactly 

 whether our horses are derived from these wild 

 ancestors, nor whether the descendants of the neo- 

 lithic horse really persisted till some two or three 

 centuries ago. 



Of our present domestic animals, most have been 

 domesticated for a very long time, and while we feel 

 assured that domestication is merely a matter of time 

 and patience, we wonder at the fact that civilised man 

 has been content to accept the legacy of his savage 

 ancestors, and has done so little to increase it. At 

 the present time man, in the civilised state, does not 

 possess more than some twenty species of birds and 

 some twenty of mammals in the domesticated state. 

 It is true these species meet most of his requirements ; 

 but who would venture to say that there is not much 

 profit in store for him if he were to increase the number 

 of his domestic friends ? While man in all parts of the 

 earth is or ought to be eager to discover new vege- 

 tables, or at least new fruits, and to cultivate and export 

 them, how is it that our animal resources remain so very 

 few in number ? I do not explain the fact, but merely 

 call attention to it, and many, I hope, will concur 

 with me, and think that much might be done in the 

 way of acclimatising useful animals useful as meat 

 or milk-givers or wool-producers of domesticating 

 them, and of discovering new resources from which 



