2 i8 UTILITARIAN ZOOLOGY 



One Insect, too, the Honey- Bee (Apis melliftca), has played no 

 mean part in the drama of human civilization, and to this may 

 be added the Silk- Worm (Bombyx mori] and the Cochineal 

 Insect (Coccus cacti], 



The following remarks on the origin of Domestication and 

 some of its results are quoted from Jenks (A History of Politics] : 

 " The art of taming wild animals and making them serve the pur- 

 poses of man, is one of the great discoveries of the world. . . . But 

 as to the man or men who introduced it we have no knowledge, 

 except through vague and obviously untrustworthy tradition. . . . 

 In all probability the discovery was made independently by many 

 different races, under combinations of favourable circumstances. 

 But if we cannot speak with confidence of names and dates in 

 the matter, we can make certain tolerably shrewd guesses as 

 to the way in which domestication of animals came about. We 

 start with the fact that the most valuable of the world's domestic 

 animals the sheep, horse, ox, goat, &c. are known to exist, 

 or to have existed, in a wild state. It is practically impossible 

 to suppose that these wild animals are (except in rare cases) 

 the result of the escape from captivity of tame animals. It 

 follows, therefore, that the start which a pack of savages could 

 obtain in the matter of domestication would depend upon the 

 character of the wild animals in the neighbourhood. For it is 

 fairly obvious by this time that many wild animals are not suit- 

 able for taming. Thus, it is hardly possible that the lion, tiger, 

 or bear will ever really become domestic animals, in spite of 

 the fact that their strength and endurance would prove valuable 

 qualities if they could be used. And so some peoples may have 

 remained utterly savage because of the fact that their country 

 does not produce animals capable of domestication. Again, some 

 races, like the Eskimos, appear to have had only the wild an- 

 cestors of the dog and the reindeer (fig. 1156), and thus to have 

 been very limited in their opportunities. Other races have been 

 able to tame the sheep, one of the most valuable aids to civiliza- 

 tion; others, again, have had the still more valuable ox. But 

 still the question remains how was the process of domestication 

 discovered? Here, again, we can only proceed by speculation; 

 but a most valuable account of his experiences in Southern 

 Africa (Damara Land), published by the late Sir Francis Galton 

 in the middle of last century, affords us some suggestive hints 



