258 PROF. ROLLESTON ON THE DOMESTIC PIG 



point on which Rutimeyer insists, in a different tone (Herknnft unserer Thierwelt, 

 p. 34) from that adopted by Gibbon, bntnot less categorically, nor, indeed, less strikingly, 

 remarking, as he does, that at the present day the Hyrax and the Hippopotamus are the 

 only genera of " Pachyderms " confined to one quarter of the globe. 



The ^Ethiopian region therefore must be held to possess a true Sus ; and as to domestica- 

 bility, the Palsearctic, the Oriental, and the Ethiopian Suidae have possibly equal claims*. 



There would be little weight to be laid upon mere differences in size, even if much 

 greater differences did exist between Sus scrqfa, var. ferus, and Sus cristatus than a 

 comparison of the measurements given in the British- Museum ' Catalogue of Carni- 

 vorous Pachydermatous and Edentate Mammalia,' 1869, pp. 334, 337, 338, or a compari- 

 son of the skulls themselves shows to be the case; for Pallas'sf words and Nathusius's J 

 are both clear to the effect that differences of as much as 50 per cent, do exist between 

 individuals of the Sus serofa, var. ferus ; and a comparison of what I believe to be the 

 skull of an old Wild Sow, from the alluvium of the Thames, near Oxford (PI. XLI. fig. 2), 

 with that of a modern Wild Boar (PL XLIL fig. 5), will put the matter beyond all 

 question. 



According to Nathusius j, the differences in size between the largest and the smallest 

 wild swine are so considerable as to have caused them to be distinguished by such names 



* Pigs fulfil excellently well the six conditions enumerated by Mr. Francis Gal ton, I. c, as necessary for domesti- 

 cation, viz.: — 1. That the animal should be hardy; 2. That it should have an inborn liking for man; 3. That it 

 should be comfort-loving ; 4. That it should be found useful ; 5. That it should breed freely ; 6. That it should be 

 gregarious. jEsop, iElian, and Lactantius (pit. by Bochart, Hierozoicon, ii. 698) have, in various ways, remarked on 

 the peculiarity of the pig as contrasted with other domestic animals, in that it is useful only when dead, giving 

 neither milk, as does the cow, nor wool as does the sheep. With this peculiarity is connected the fact, useful for the 

 often difficult task of deciding whether a particular skull came from a wild or a domestic breed, that domestic pigs 

 are usually made useful while young. Eiitimeyer, indeed (I. c. p. 52), gives it as one of his reasons for supposing Sus 

 serofa, var. palustris, to be represented by a wild as well as by a tame stock, that its remains are usually those either of 

 very old or quite young individuals. A pig will father while quite young ; and whilst gaining nothing in its capacity 

 of manufacturer of food in its own body, it loses in its capacity of a breeding animal with increase of age. This is 

 not the case with the cow; and the discovery, therefore, of remains of very old individuals of this species only jus- 

 tifies us in inferring that the cow was a scarce and valuable animal in the period and place to which it belonged. 

 See Eiitimeyer, ' Fauna der Pfahlbauten, p. 10.' 



The special value of the pig as a domesticated animal is commonly expressed in an estimate that "twice the weight 

 of food may be obtained from hogs than can be obtained from the same cost of food by means of any other animals " 

 (Richardson, I. c. p. 42). In a little more detail, it is to be remarked that the pig, as a meat-producer, stands at an 

 advantage (to the consumer), first, in the smaller relative weight of its "offal" as compared with the entire weight 

 of its body, but secondly, and chiefly, in the large proportion of fat, the kind of food which is eminently the hardest 

 for a savage or for the poor to procure, which it will store up upon almost any dietary. For this, see Lawes and 

 Gilbert's invaluable Paper in the Royal Society's Transactions for 1859, " On the Composition of some of the Animals 

 fed and slaughtered as Human Food," page 565 for relative proportion of offal, pages 513 and 543 for storing up of 

 fat. It may be here remarked that De Blainville (Osteographie, G. Sus, Introduction, p. 107) may very likely be 

 right in suggesting that the pig may have furnished animal food to the earliest races of man before either cow or 

 sheep, but that he could not have had our knowledge of the very various kinds of animals which, even in these days, 

 f urnitih lower races of men with animal food, when he supposes that animal food must have been supplied by one or 

 other of the three animals named. And his reason for such truth as his conclusions contain is, it is to be feared, but 

 a poor one ; it runs thus, " le Cochon etant 1' animal qui sympathise le moins par ses qualites aft'ectives avec l'espece 

 humaine a du etre celui qu'elle aura le moins repugne a tuer de sangfroid pour s'en nourrir ; ce qui aura eu lieu plus 

 tard et avec bien plus de repugnance pour le Mouton et pour le Boeuf." 



t Zoographia, 1831, p. 267. i Schweineschiidel, 1864, p. 65. 



