Remarks on Hybridity. 211 
have suggested, to certain primitive species, which were endowed 
with the capacity for reproducing among themselves, especially 
under the influence of domestic culture. We have shown that 
this fact is unquestionable among some quadrupeds and some 
birds, of which the hybrid varieties have been cultivated for the 
uses of man. of 
Could we trace back the origin and history of various other 
Species, we should, in all probability, arrive at the very same re- 
sult; for it appears to be a law of nature, that the faculty pos 
sessed by different species of animals of producing fertile hybrid 
offspring, is in proportion to their aptitude for domesticity. 
ow, since man possesses this aptitude in the highest. degree, 
being as Blumenbach expresses it, the most domestic of animals, 
it would be nothing singular if he possessed the power of fertile 
hybridity, even if the human family should prove to embrace 
several distinct species; because, as we have fully shown, this 
ge is not unfrequent among animals, whose specific, 
come by centuries of proximity, and, above all other means, by 
the moral : 
“See the travels of Hawkins, Browne, Burkhardt, Caillet, &c., for abundant 
: € 
. 
evidence of this fac 
I must here be permitted to offer a single additional remark. It is obvious. that 
While c ion produces obvious changes in some animals, its influence has had 
little or no effec on others; for example, ass, the rat, he mouse, one 
quadrupeds, and the peacock and guinea fowl ¢ we 
n licated from immemorial time, in all latitudes, under every Fe, d 
Variety of circumstances. Am ild birds and q' SA hie ienbcheg 
some under very remarkabl ges in astate of nature, as some spe io of 
Uirrel, fo. the wpa 
oh , , beer ar aaa rs set draining inferential conclusions from 
n 
