406 LECTURE XIV. 



longer any question about pliancy of species^ nor about 

 stability of varieties. 



" Without attempting to fattom the question here raised, I 

 would only mention once more, that those animals which have 

 been domesticated within historical times are not included in 

 our considerations. It is conceivable, though not demonstra- 

 ble, that some domestic animals originated from a wild parent 

 stock, and that consequently the hog does not belong to primi- 

 tive domestic animals. Even the question of the relapse of 

 domesticated animals into the wild state, of which the swine 

 aflFord so many instances, must not divert us from our theme. 



" Such a theory leads us to primitive or original races ; but 

 the question concerning their origin, their unity, or plurality, in 

 every animal species, lies beyond the limits of observation." 



This long extract from Nathusius, ' plainly shows that a 

 single deviation from the right path of inquiry leads to a 

 number of wrong conclusions. In order that man should 

 correspond to the religious idea of being a special being, pro- 

 duced by a direct divine interference, he is thrust into an 

 exceptional position. But as it is observed that the domestic 

 animals and their natural races stand in evident relation to 

 human races and stocks, and as specially as regards generation 

 and propagation the conditions are nearly identical, it becomes 

 requisite to assume for the domestic animals also an exceptional 

 position. The intelligence of man, they say, has done nothing 

 for the domestication of animals ; they have been created as 

 such for the use of man. But then comes that somewhat fatal 

 objection, that within historic times man has domesticated 

 many wild species. I shall here only mention the turkey, 

 which even now occurs wild in North America, the domestica- 

 tion of which dates only two centuries back. The exception, 

 therefore, does not apply to this nor other domestic animals, 

 nor to the efforts of the Acclimatisation Society ; it only applies 

 to animals tamed in pre-historic times, of which we know 

 nothing. But here again we are met by the fact, that the de- 

 scent of the large-eared swine from the wild boar can hardly 

 be denied ; consequently the hog too forms no exception. But 

 how about the Frisian cow, the curved-horned cattle, the large- 



