MAN. 



to all those causes which can produce 

 such effects; by living- with man they 

 lend an artificial and unnatural kind of 

 life, and are taken with him into climates 

 and situations, and exposed to various 

 other circumstances altogether different 

 from their original destination ; hence 

 they run into numerous varieties of co- 

 lour, form, size, &c. which, when they 

 are established as permanent breeds, 

 would be considered by a person unin- 

 formed on these subjects, to be origi- 

 nally different species. Wild animals on 

 the contrary remaining constantly in the 

 state for which they were originally 

 framed, retain permanently their first 

 character. Man, the inhabitant of every 

 climate and soil, partaking of every 

 kind of food, and of every variety in 

 mode of life, must be exposed still more 

 than any animal to the causes of degene- 

 ration. 



Climate is one of the causes which 

 seems to exercise a powerful influence 

 on the animal economy, and the forma- 

 tion of the body. To this we must ascribe 

 the white colour of several animals in the 

 northern regions, which possess other 

 colours in more temperate countries, viz. 

 the fox, hare, falcon, crow, blackbird, 

 c. That this whiteness must be ascrib- 

 ed to the cold of the climate is rendered 

 probable by the analogy of those animals 

 which change their colour in the same 

 country at the winter season to white or 

 grey : as the ermine and weasel, hare, 

 squirrel, reindeer, &.c. &c. The com- 

 mon bear is veiy differently coloured in 

 different countries. The remarkable 

 silky and white covering of various ani- 

 mals in that district of Asia Minor called 

 Angora must be explained in the same 

 way, rather than from any difference of 

 food ; because it occurs in instances 

 where very different kinds of food are 

 used, as in the cat and goat. Hence also 

 we account for the peculiar blackness of 

 the fowls and dogs on the coast of Gui- 

 nea, and for the change of the woolly co- 

 vering of the sheep into hair in the same 

 .situation. 



The effect of climate on the stature of 

 the body is shewn by the smallnessof the 

 horses in Scotland and North Wales ; 

 and by the remarkable differences in 

 this respect in the different provinces of 

 Sweden. Must we not also explain on 

 the same principle the constant and re- 

 markable degeneracy of the horse in 

 France ? According to Buffon, the Spa- 

 nish or Barbary horses, where the breed 

 is not crossed, degenerate into French 



horses in the second, or at latest 

 third generation. 



The effect of food on the body is very 

 obvious in the well known fact of several 

 singing birds, chiefly of the lark and 

 finch kinds, becoming gradually black, 

 if they are fed on hemp-seed only. The 

 texture of the hair has been changed, 

 in an African sheep brought into Eng- 

 land, from the coarse nature of that of 

 the camel, to considerable softness and 

 fineness, by one year's feeding in the 

 pastures of this country. The influence 

 of the same cause on the stature and pro- 

 portions of the body is shewn in the 

 horse, which grows to a large size in the 

 marshy grounds of Friesland, while on 

 stony soils or dry heaths they remain 

 dwarfish. Oxen become very large and 

 fat in rich soils, but are distinguished by 

 shortness of the leg ; while in drier situa- 

 tions their whole bulk is much less, and 

 the limbs are stronger and more fleshy. 

 I do not advert to the well-known differ- 

 ences of flavour and weight produced by 

 different food. 



Manner of life. Under this head we 

 include all those causes which can act on 

 the animal economy besides climate and 

 food; and which, by their long -continued 

 influence on the body, effect considera- 

 ble changes in it. Culture and the pow- 

 er of habit are the most efficacious of 

 these, and exert a very powerful and in- 

 disputable action on our domestic ani- 

 mals. Observe the striking difference 

 of form and proportion between the 

 horse trained in the manege, and the. 

 wild, untaught, and unbroken animal. 

 The latter bites rather than kicks ; while 

 the former, reined, and armed with iron 

 shoes, uses these as his means of offence. 

 The ass in its wild state is remarkably 

 swift and lively, and still remains so in his 

 native countries in the east. The argali, 

 or wild original of the sheep, is covered 

 with hair instead of wool; and the bison, 

 or wild ox, has a long flowing mane, 

 hanging almost to the ground. Most of 

 the mammalia, which have been tamed by 

 man, betray their subjugated state, by 

 having the ears and tail pendulous. In 

 many, the very functions of the body, as 

 the secretions, generation, &c. are great- 

 ly changed. The domestic sow produces 

 young twice a year, and the wild animal 

 only once. 



The domestic pig acquires a vast accu- 

 mulation of fat under the skin, which is 

 never seen in the wild animal, which on 

 the contrary possesses a soft downy hair 

 among its bristles, speedily lost in the 



