UTILITARIAN ZOOLOGY 



CHAPTER LXVII 



ANIMAL FRIENDS ANIMALS AS A SOURCE OF FOOD- 

 DOMESTICATION DOMESTICATED MAMMALS 



The view taken in this work as to the scope of Utilitarian 

 Zoology has been sufficiently indicated in the Introduction (see 

 vol. i, p. 1 8), and if by no means free from objection, it may 

 serve to marshal important facts and principles in a fairly orderly 

 manner. 



Although the feeding habits of Man differ greatly according to 

 the environment, he may fairly be described as omnivorous (see 

 vol. ii, p. 225), but the proportion of animal food taken increases 

 as we pass from tropical and sub-tropical regions into higher 

 latitudes. The commissariat question has necessarily been a 

 dominant factor in the evolution of human civilization, and this is 

 abundantly evident if we recall the oft-told story of that evolution 

 so far as Western Europe is concerned. In this area, as is 

 generally known, there have been successive Ages of Stone, 

 Bronze, and Iron, names indicating the materials employed in 

 making the chief weapons and implements. During the first of 

 these ages prehistoric man passed through the three most im- 

 portant stages marking the progress of civilization, i.e. those of 

 (i) the Hunter and Fisherman, (2) the nomad Herdsman and 

 Flock- Master (pastoral stage), and (3) the Tiller of the Soil 

 (agricultural stage). The first two of these (and of course the 

 third) still find parallels among existing races. In an interesting 

 little book by Jenks (A History of Politics] the native Australians 

 are taken as an illustration of the first stage: " The material side 

 of Australian existence may be best described in a series of nega- 

 tives. The savages understand neither the cultivation of the land 

 nor the rearing of sheep and cattle. Their only domestic animal 



