1 64 EXPERIMENTAL EVOLUTION LECT. 



has been the work of man. The study of the pre- 

 historic vestiges of our ancestors shows that domestica- 

 tion began at different times in different localities. 

 Up to the palaeolithic epoch, man possessed no 

 domestic animals. He hunted and killed the reindeer, 

 aurochs, and horse, but ate them instead of domes- 

 ticating them. In the Solutre encampment vestiges 

 have been found of over 40,000 horses ; but all the 

 bones are broken and shattered, the animals have been 

 killed by the hunters and immediately eaten, and the 

 flint arrow-heads have been found embedded in the 

 bones, showing beyond doubt what use was made of 

 the horse by palaeolithic man. It is only during the 

 neolithic period that domestication began. The dog 

 was one of the animals first domesticated, and he was 

 already in use during the Kitchenmidden period. 

 The domestication of other animals followed at very 

 irregular intervals and in very different countries, and 

 it is nearly impossible as yet to ascertain exactly at 

 what period or epoch our domesticated animals 

 entered upon their present condition. In fact it 

 matters little, the principal point of interest for us 

 being that the domestication of animals has been the 

 work of man. This is sufficiently proved by all ascer- 

 tained facts. 



The next and most important point is that domes- 

 tication has been a means of transmutation. The 



