INTRODUCTION. 105 
climate and in captivity, are not conclusive because 
they have terminated in the negative. We may add, 
that it is likely dogs are at least as likely as horses 
to be affected by impressions of former impregna- 
tions effected by different species, and not oblite- 
rated in the offspring of a subsequent homogeneous 
litter.* 
We know already enough of the kindlier moral 
instincts of several wild canines to render their apti- 
tude for domestication, during the pressure of a 
series of ages, not very problematical; and if the 
education of some of the races nearer to the wild 
condition do not appear to be advanced to a great 
degree of tractability, we must reflect that domestic 
qualities are of very slow growth, as long as wild 
congeners exist in the same country; and that, 
where man is a savage, his deg cannot be expected 
to be civilized. This truth is indeed of such univer- 
sal application, that in some measure we may deter- 
mine the social condition of a nation by the degree 
of education its dogs have acquired. 
If, therefore, we were to distribute the more 
typical races of dogs according to their apparent 
affinities with those wild species which we know to 
reside in zones of latitudes sufficiently proximate for 
admitting their paternity, and place the more aber- 
rant tribes likewise in their congenial zones, although 
* We refer to the case of the mare and quagga, and her 
subsequent foals, recorded in Surgeons’ College, London ; 
where the pictures of the successive fouls, painted by Agape, 
are preserved. 
